Current practice of pre-operative assessment at a public sector hospital in Pakistan – a clinical audit Authors Sana Urooj Department of Anaesthesiology, Surgical Intensive Care Unit and Pain Management, Civil Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan Anum Mughal Department of Anaesthesiology, Civil Hospital, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan Sarush Ahmed Siddiqui Department of Anaesthesiology, Surgical Intensive Care Unit and Pain Management, Civil Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan Rabia Kamal Department of Anaesthesiology, Surgical Intensive Care Unit and Pain Management, Civil Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan Aisha Naeem Department of Anaesthesiology, Civil Hospital, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan DOI: https://doi.org/10.47391/JPMA.8339 Keywords: Preoperative, Investigation, Guidelines, Assessment, Audit Abstract Objective: To assess the practice of ordering unnecessary laboratory investigations by primary surgical teams. Method: The clinical audit was conducted from December 17, 2022, to January 15, 2023, at the Civil Hospital, Karachi, and comprised primary surgeons working in different surgical units who ordered laboratory investigations for patients as a part of preoperative assessment. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Data was analysed using SPSS 20. Results: Of the 280 surgeons approached, 249(89%) responded. The units covered were General surgery 96(38.5%), Gynaecology 74(29.7%), Neurosurgery 5(2.0%), Ear, Nose and Throat 19(7.6%), Plastic surgery 15(6.02%), Paediatric surgery 13(5.2%), Vascular surgery 8(3.21%), Oromaxilofacial 9(3.61%), Opthalmology 6(2.4%), and Orthopaedics 4(1.60%).As part of baseline investigations, 244(98%) surgeons ordered complete blood count, 173(69.5%) ordered urea and creatinine, 229(92%) ordered viral markers, 197(78.7%) ordered fasting and random blood glucose, and 178(71.5%) focussed on cardiac fitness. Conclusion: There was a found a need for standard protocols for pre-surgery evaluation so that unnecessary investigations may be avoided. Key Words: Preoperative, Investigation, Guidelines, Assessment, Audit. Downloads Full Text Article Published 2024-03-20 How to Cite Urooj, S., Mughal, A., Siddiqui, S. A., Kamal, R., & Naeem, A. (2024). Current practice of pre-operative assessment at a public sector hospital in Pakistan – a clinical audit. Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association, 74(4), 736–740. https://doi.org/10.47391/JPMA.8339 More Citation Formats ACM ACS APA ABNT Chicago Harvard IEEE MLA Turabian Vancouver Download Citation Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS) BibTeX Issue Vol. 74 No. 4 (2024): APRIL Section AUDIT License Copyright (c) 2024 Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.