Utility of Preoperative Laboratory Testing for Ambulatory Endoscopic Sinonasal Surgery in Low-Risk Patients.

Background: Preoperative laboratory tests (PLTs) are often obtained prior to outpatient surgical procedures. The objective of this study is to examine the current practice of routine PLT in low-risk patients undergoing ambulatory endoscopic sinonasal surgery (ESS) and to assess whether such testing impacts surgical outcomes.

Methods: Patients undergoing ambulatory ESS were identified from the 2011 to 2018 NSQIP database. Low-risk patients were defined as American Society of Anesthesiologist class 1 or 2. PLTs were grouped into hematologic, chemistry, coagulation, and liver function tests. Chi-square analyses and independent samples -tests were conducted to compare categoric and continuous variables, respectively.

Results: A total of 664 cases met the inclusion criteria, of which 419 (62.1%) underwent at least one PLT. Of these, the most frequent PLT obtained was a complete blood cell count (92.4%). Major complications occurred in 1.5% of patients. There were no statistically significant differences in overall postoperative complications between those with and without PLT ( = .264). Specifically, no significant difference was seen in the incidence of postoperative bleeding ( = .184), urinary tract infection ( = .444), pulmonary embolism ( = .444), or wound infection ( = .701). On multivariable analyses, PLT status was not significantly associated with any complication ( = .097) or unplanned readmission ( = .898).

Conclusions: Our analysis did not reveal an association between the use of PLT and postoperative morbidity or unplanned readmission in low-risk patients undergoing outpatient ESS.