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health advisory Hospital Doctor Yu 2007-11-8 19:08:46

Answers:

The more information the doctor has, the better your chances.

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The ECG is done to be sure your heart is stable enough for surgery. I would guess the x-ray is done because aspiration pneumonia is a frequent complication of surgery and they want to make sure your lungs are clear to begin with. I developed pneumonia after my hysterectomy in February.

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Because anesthesia medications can have many side effects. If you have a specific abnormality called prolonged QT on your EKG, for example, certain types of anesthesia would be harmful and the doctor will choose another. Other heart conditions may be indications to use specific anesthesia or to even cancel the surgery altogether.

The chest XR is similar -- to makes sure there is no underlying lung problem that would cause increased need for oxygen, decreased/increased need for ventilation rate, volume of air, etc. etc.

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many tests as those and bloodwork is done before surgery to make sure that you are ok to proceed with the surgery. sometimes you can have a change in bloodwork, x-rays and ecg that could actually hurt a person or kill them if any changes are not caught. usually during the pre-surgery testing you can be fine, but when they set the date for surgery. changes could have been in your health as being sick, a cold or bronchitis which can cause breathing problems. they have to make sure your going to be fine during the surgery.

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Chest X-ray can show up issues like TB, where the regular TB skin test is inconclusive.

I had the BCG as a child & now (nominally) test positive in TB tests.

My chest X-ray shows about 3-4 pea sized nodules in my lungs & that's all. I had long-term exposure - my uncle had advanced TB, working a dairy farm in England, so it was vital to get quality information, prior to surgery.

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