What routine preoperative assessment is critical for patients over 65?

For patients over 65, cardiac risk evaluation is critical in preoperative assessment due to the increased prevalence of cardiovascular diseases and related complications in this age group. As patients age, the risk of perioperative cardiac events such as myocardial infarction or heart failure rises significantly. Therefore, understanding a patient's cardiac status—including factors like history of coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, arrhythmias, and functional capacity—is essential in planning safe surgical interventions.

Performing a thorough cardiac risk evaluation helps clinicians decide whether additional tests, such as non-invasive cardiac stress tests or consultations with cardiology, are necessary. If identified, potential cardiac issues can then be managed preoperatively, thus reducing the risk of adverse cardiac events during or after surgery.

While neurological assessments, complete blood counts, and respiratory function tests are important assessments in certain clinical contexts, they do not carry the same level of critical importance universally across all patients over 65 in the preoperative setting as cardiac risk evaluation does.