Everyone undergoes one or the other form of surgery, at least once in a lifetime. Be it a small laparoscopic surgery or a complex bone surgery; operation means a lot of work that has to be done. One of the requirements of any surgery is the preoperative blood test.
If you ask a patient who is scheduled to undergo surgery in a couple of days, you will get to know that he has been given a long list of different radiological ad pathological tests. Out of these, the blood tests are very important. Not only the doctors determine the current health situation of the patient from the blood tests, but also they arrange for necessary medical treatments if the blood reports are not normal.
But many of us are not aware of the preoperative blood test means, why it is so important to conduct them, and many other facts. So, let’s have a look at the main things you have to know about the pathological tests done before any surgery.
What are the preoperative blood tests?
From the name itself, you can understand that these blood tests are performed right before the surgery, probably a couple of days prior to the operation. In some hospitals, the blood tests are done after you get admitted for the operation, provided your previous medical history isn’t of much concern.
However, if someone is suffering from any medical condition, the doctors will check the blood reports twice before the surgery. Under such scenarios, you will have to attend two preoperative blood test schedules to ensure that the blood reports are within the normal levels.
Why are they conducted?
The next question that arises is why preoperative blood tests are so important? Well, with these tests, the doctor can assess the medical condition of the patient and prevent any kind of mishaps during the operation. For example, if a patient has high white blood cell count in the blood and it is not checked prior to the surgery, there will be high chances of infection of the operated area after the surgery is done.
So, with prior knowledge about the medical condition of the patient, the doctors are able to perform the surgery accordingly. Also, to normalize the conditions, sometimes, the doctors prefer some medicines to bring the blood reports within the normal limit. Also, these blood reports help the doctor to suggest proper medication after the surgery is over so as to ensure that the operated body part is healing at a proper pace. Hence, conducting the preoperative blood test is definitely important, something you cannot overlook.
What are the basic blood tests that are performed before any surgery?
For a little more in-depth knowledge, let’s have a look at the major preoperative blood tests which are performed irrespective of the kind of operation you are about to undergo.
- CBC or complete blood count: this test not only gives the differential count of the blood cells but also includes other essential information like the ESR rate, hemoglobin count, and so on.
- HIV test: this is done to ensure whether the patient is HIV positive or negative. In case the patient is positive, doctors will need to take care of the blood clotting part because HIV positive patients have diluted blood.
- Sugar test: this is done both for diabetic and non-diabetic patients to know whether the blood glucose level is within the normal range or not. If the blood sugar levels are not normal, the wounds will take longer to heal without proper medication support.
- Electrolyte count: in this test, serum potassium, serum iron, serum sodium, and other electrolyte count is checked.
Conclusion
With this piece of information, you would have got the insight on the preoperative blood tests. We hope that now you have a clearer idea about what is done and why.
