Analysis of the Knowledge Level of Surgical Residents Regarding the Preoperative Assessment of Adult Elective Non-cardiac Surgery Patients with Specific Clinical Conditions

Abstract

Objective: We aimed to analyze the knowledge level of surgical residents regarding preoperative assessment and increase their collaboration with other teams in optimizing the general medical status of patients to reduce the duration of hospital stay and complication rates. Method: Our study included 80 surgical residents. The 2018 update of the European Society of Anesthesiology (ESA) was used during the preparation of the survey questions. The questions were categorized on the basis of the specific clinical conditions and medications noted in the ESA guidelines. Answer choices were “correct”, “wrong” or “no idea.” Results: Analysis of the distribution of the mean correct answer rates (%) revealed that the question regarding “herbal medications” led to the lowest correct answer (13.75%), whereas the category “bridging and anticoagulation” was associated with the highest (72.5%) correct answer. The total mean correct answer was calculated as 50.8%. There was no significant correlation between the residents’ seniority level (i.e., postgraduate year) and their correct answer rates in the neurosurgery, general surgery, ear-nose-throat, and plastic surgery divisions. However, there were statistically significant differences in the ophthalmology, urology, orthopedic surgery, and obstetrics and gynecology divisions. Conclusion: The general medical status of patients should be optimized to reduce the risk of complications. To achieve this goal, surgical residents should collaborate with other teams at each perioperative stage. In addition, we suggest that the curriculum be reviewed to increase the knowledge level of surgical residents regarding preoperative care.

Keywords

• elective non-cardiac surgery
• knowledge level of residents
• pre-operative assessment