PATIENT INFORMATION
Do I need tests before surgery?
Not necessarily. Preoperative tests should answer a clinical question or help the team make a decision. A healthy person having a minor operation may need few or no routine tests, while a person with medical conditions or a major operation may need targeted investigations.
Doing more tests is not automatically safer. Unexpected minor abnormalities can lead to repeat testing and delay without improving care. The useful question is: will this result change what we do before, during or after surgery?
An abnormal result needs interpretation in your clinical context. Do not decide whether surgery is safe, or change treatment, solely from information on this website.