Anaesthesia has integral role to play in surgery and better outcome of patient. Unfortunately, most medical professional and people have a poor knowledge about anaesthesia and the importance of preanaesthesia checkup [1].

Preanaesthesia checkup is a term which is still not fully understood. In Pac anesthesiologist examines patient fully, orders investigations, optimizes medical conditions and then stratifies the risk to improve postoperative outcome [2]. But as it is not well understood people think it is important to take date of surgery or because surgeon has advised to do so. They fail to understand the real motive of pac. It is our duty as anaesthesiologist toto build rapport with patient make them understand about Pac and even if surgery is cancelled tell them about reason and talk about need to optimize medical conditions before taking to surgery [3]. We did a survey in rural hospital on patients coming for various elective surgeries during Pac regarding their knowledge about anaesthesia and Pac [4].

Patients of age 18 to 60 years coming for Pac for elective surgeries were included in civil hospital Palampur. Written informed consent was taken from patients. Study was conducted over a period of 3 months. This center is a secondary health care center [4].

Exclusion Criteria

• Altered metal state

• Refused to participate

• Age less than 18 and more than 60

Study Protocol

A questionnaire was printed both in English and Hindi languages. For persons who were not literate questions were asked verbally. Total 15 questions were asked. Don’t know option was also kept incase patient don’t know the answer. for questions 5 to 15scoring was also done. For correct answer 1 mark and 0 for incorrect answer. For don’t know the answer 0mark was given. Chi square test was used for statistical analysis. p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant [5].

A time duration of 3 months was taken. Total 93 patients were included. Out of which 64 were females and 29 were males.

Table 1: Patients’ Awareness and Perceptions Regarding Pre-Anesthesia Checkup (n = 92)

On analyzing results,62% said that they were following surgeon’ instructions to get done Pac, 22% thought that it is important to get date of surgery.10% knew about pre anesthesia checkup and its importance. Secondly for question what is done in Pac 37% patients said that Pac is done for general assessment only, while 31% patients said that tests will be done during pac. Only 5% told that assessment, risk assessment and risk stratification and optimization will be done during Pac, while 27 % patients didn’t know anything about pac [6]. 

10% patients were knowing that Pac is performed by anesthesiologist. 70% patients think that Pac can be done by doctor sitting in clinic. 18% patients think that Pac is done by nurse ortechnician. 2% did not know anything.

When the importance of Pac was asked 11% told that Pac helps in decreasing risk of surgery and anesthesia and 27% told that it is important for taking surgery date. 10 % patients said that it is important for legal documentation.

Regarding about discussing medical illness of patients before surgery 35% told that they should be discussed before surgery 45% patients were of the view that it is of no use. 17% were of the view that medical conditions need to be optimized before surgery while 19% didn’t believe in optimizing conditions before surgery. 40%people think that if medical conditions are not related to surgery they need not to be optimized [7].

20% people said that medical illness can have adverse effects on outcome of surgery and anesthesia while 65% said that medical illness have no effect on surgery outcome [8].

75% wants to discuss their fears with surgeons in wards, 12% wants to discuss with anesthesiologist in Pac clinic. 9% wants to discuss this in OT. 27% patients believed in following instructions given in Pac clinic for their own welfare, 30% patients want to follow advice only till surgery is completed and 12% said they would follow only if surgeon advices.

Anaesthesia is a very underrated and less understood branch among general public [9]. Very less people know that anaesthesiologist are also doctors. This less knowledge about anaesthesia and Pac leads to less favorable outcome sometimes in post operative period. More knowledge in general public will help them in understanding the importance of instructions given during Pac and reason for cancellation of surgery [10].

In a similar study by Bajaj et al. in 170 patients they found that only 55.3% patient were knowing that anaesthesiologist are doctors [11]. There were other studies also with same results like by Singla and Mangla, Sagun et al and abofila et al. [6].

In a study by Singla and Mangla on rural setup they found patients who had been earlier to Pac clinic better understand about Pac and considers anesthesiologit as doctors. We also in our study found that 10 % patients were knowing that Pac is performed by anaesthetist.

In our study that in rural India anaesthesia and Pac is not well understood. There is still a need to increase awareness among general public about anaesthesia and importance of pac. While doing Pac we need to educate them more about Pac and reason for cancellation of surgery. In postoperative we need to follow up the patients so that better rapport and better outcome of patients can be done [12].

To decrease the mortality and morbidity and improve postoperative outcome of patients we need to increase awareness about anesthesia and importance of pac. 

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2. S.T. Chew et al. "A survey of patients’ knowledge of anaesthesia and perioperative care." Singapore Medical Journal, vol. 39, 1998, pp. 399–402.

3. M.G. Irwin et al. "Patients’ knowledge and attitudes towards anaesthesia and anaesthetists in Hong Kong." Hong Kong Medical Journal, vol. 4, no. 1, 1998, pp. 16–22.

4. J.B. Forrest et al. "Multicenter Study of General Anesthesia: Predictors of Severe Perioperative Adverse Outcomes." Anesthesiology, vol. 76, 1992, pp. 3–15.

5. A. Sagun et al. "Patients who applied to the anesthesia clinic, perceptions and knowledge about anesthesia in Türkiye." Saudi Journal of Anaesthesia, vol. 7, 2013, pp. 170–174.

6. D. Singla and M. Mangla. "Patients’ knowledge and perception of pre-anesthesia check-up in rural India." Anesthesia: Essays and Researches, vol. 9, 2015, pp. 326–331.

7. C.H. Kindler et al. "The patient’s perception of the anaesthetist in a swiss university hospital." Anaesthesist, vol. 51, 2002, pp. 890–896.

8. C.K. Hofer et al. "Patients’ needs and expectations regarding anaesthesia: a survey on the preanaesthetic visit of patients and anaesthesiologists." Anaesthesist, vol. 53, no. 11, 2004, pp. 1061–1068.

9. C. Harms et al. "Improving Anaesthetists’ Communication Skills." Anaesthesia, vol. 59, no. 2, 2004, pp. 166–172.

10. C. Baillard et al. "Patients’ Perspective with Regard to Anesthesia Services." Canadian Journal of Anaesthesia, vol. 48, 2001, pp. 52–58.

11. J. Baaj et al. "Saudi patients’ knowledge and attitude toward anesthesia and anaesthesiologists: A prospective cross-sectional interview questionnaire." Middle East Journal of Anesthesiology, vol. 18, 2006, pp. 679–691.

12. A.E. Azab et al. "Evaluate patients’ awareness regarding significance of pre-anesthetic checkup for elective surgery in western libya." Archives of Anesthesiology, vol. 3, no. 1, 2020, pp. 1–9.