TY - JOUR
T1 - The bleeding time as a preoperative screening test
AU - Barber, Ann
AU - Green, David
AU - Galluzzo, Theresa
AU - Ts'ao, Chung Hsin
N1 - Funding Information:
From the Deparbnems of Medicine and Pathology, Northwestern Mernoriil Hospital and Northwestern University Medical School, and the Atherosclerosis Program, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. Requests for reprints should be addressed to Dr. David Green, Atherosclerosis Program, Northwestern University, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, 345 East Superior Street, Room 1407, Chicago, Illinois 60611. Manuscript accepted October 8, 1984. l Current address: Medicine Branch, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Building 10, Room 12N226, Bethesda, Maryland 20815.
PY - 1985/5
Y1 - 1985/5
N2 - To examine the benefit of determination of the bleeding time as a preoperative screening test, the medical records of all patients who had a prolonged bleeding time during a six-month period were reviewed. At Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where the bleeding time test is part of the presurgical panel, 1,941 bleeding time determinations were performed during six months. Prolonged bleeding times were recorded in 110 preoperative patients, of whom 83 (75 percent) had bleeding risk factors, including drug ingestion, thrombocytopenia, and azotemia. In these patients, the bleeding time ranged unpredictably from 10 to more than 20 minutes. However, of the 27 patients without apparent risk factors, only two had bleeding times of more than 20 minutes. This small number probably does not justify the routine use of the test In all preoperative patients. Rather, the test should be used selectively for those subjects who, on the basis of history or laboratory evidence, are suspected of being at risk of hemorrhage. Moreover, even In these patients, prolongation of the bleeding time may not always be associated with excessive surgical blood loss.
AB - To examine the benefit of determination of the bleeding time as a preoperative screening test, the medical records of all patients who had a prolonged bleeding time during a six-month period were reviewed. At Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where the bleeding time test is part of the presurgical panel, 1,941 bleeding time determinations were performed during six months. Prolonged bleeding times were recorded in 110 preoperative patients, of whom 83 (75 percent) had bleeding risk factors, including drug ingestion, thrombocytopenia, and azotemia. In these patients, the bleeding time ranged unpredictably from 10 to more than 20 minutes. However, of the 27 patients without apparent risk factors, only two had bleeding times of more than 20 minutes. This small number probably does not justify the routine use of the test In all preoperative patients. Rather, the test should be used selectively for those subjects who, on the basis of history or laboratory evidence, are suspected of being at risk of hemorrhage. Moreover, even In these patients, prolongation of the bleeding time may not always be associated with excessive surgical blood loss.
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U2 - 10.1016/0002-9343(85)90280-3
DO - 10.1016/0002-9343(85)90280-3
M3 - Article
C2 - 3993657
AN - SCOPUS:0021825217
SN - 0002-9343
VL - 78
SP - 761
EP - 764
JO - The American journal of medicine
JF - The American journal of medicine
IS - 5
ER -