Do Anesthesiologists Follow Belgian KCE Guidelines for Preoperative Evaluation?

NCT ID: NCT05805124

Last Updated: 2023-08-30

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Total Enrollment: 2521 participants
• Study Classification: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2023-08-01
• Study Completion Date: 2023-08-29

Brief Summary

For more than 50 years it has been shown that preoperative evaluations by anesthesiologists include too many unnecessary tests. Many of the tests ordered do not change the management of the patients. One example are preoperative coagulation tests which rarely give relevant information and can be omitted if the patients have a negative structured bleeding questionnaire. This situation has lead to the publication of many guidelines on preoperative evaluation, one of the most comprehensive being the 2022 guidelines by the European Society of Cardiology for the preoperative evaluation of cardiac patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery.

In Belgium, an independent center of experts, the Kenniscentrum - Centre d'Expertise (KCE) was created to give expert and independent opinions on healthcare related subjects. These recommendations are often used by Belgian authorities to guide public health law and determine which medical procedures or tests are covered by the social security.

The KCE has published an extensive guide on preoperative evaluation of patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery (KCE Reports 280Bs. D/2016/10.273/102.) These guidelines are freely available, either in print version, on the dedicated Website or as an App, and have been extensively spread in the anesthesiology community. Laboratory tests not recommended in these guidelines are not covered by the social security if no solid reason is given in the medical chart.

In this retrospective study, adherence to the KCE guidelines on preoperative evaluations will be evaluated in a tertiary University hospital. All patients, scheduled for elective surgery, will be included for a period of 3 month. For every patient the recommended tests will be determined and compared to the actual tests prescribed by the anesthesiologist during the preadmission visit.

Conditions

Surgery

Study Design

• Observational Model Type: COHORT
• Study Time Perspective: RETROSPECTIVE

Interventions

Preop evaluation

All preop evaluations prescribed in the preadmission clinic will be recorded, especially:

• renal function tests
• hematologic tests
• coagulation tests
• hepatic function tests
• ECG
• cardiac function tests
• pulmonary function tests
• endocrine function tests

Intervention Type: DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• All patients examined at the anesthesiology preadmission clinic during Oct 1st 2022 and december 31st 2022 and scheduled for elective surgery at Erasme University hospital under general or locoregional anesthesia

Exclusion Criteria

• Non elective surgery
• Age < 18 years
• surgery under local anesthesia

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

Erasme University Hospital

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Locations

Hôpital Universitaire de Bruxelles - Hôpital erasme

Brussels, , Belgium

Countries

Belgium

Other Identifiers

SRB2023061

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id