EVALUATING THE PREVALENCE OF ABNORMAL LESIONS OF CHEST X-RAY BEFORE ELECTIVE EXTRA THORACIC SURGERY IN PATIENTS WITH ASA CLASS 1 AND 2

Background and Purpose: Accurate assessment prior to surgery helps the anesthesiologist to improve the patient's condition before surgery and to have a better approach toward the specific condition of each patient. Numerous studies show that in the absence of evidence of underlying illness in history or clinical examination, the usefulness of radiography is quite low. Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive epidemiologic study conducted in Imam Khomeini Hospital in Ahvaz, Iran in 2010. we evaluated the incidence of abnormal lesions of chest x-ray in patients with grade 1 and grade 2 ASA who had elective chest surgery . We examined 323 chest radiographs. The data gathering tool includes a questionnaire for the Features of the individual characteristics and the chest x-ray check list . Data were analyzed using descriptive-inferential statistics in SPSS version 20 Findings: Results showed that natural lesions were detected in 112 (34%) radiographs, 62 people of men (40%) and 50 people of women (29%) had an abnormal lesion in the chest radiography. Abnormal lesions were found in 14 patients (0.08%) with class 1 ASA and in 98 patients (63%) with class 2 ASA and it was higher in patients with the age of more than 65 years. Conclusion: This study suggests that chest radiographs before surgery are not useful for women under the age of 65 who have class 1 ASA. Keywords: Thoracic surgery, Abnormal lesions, chest x-ray, , ASA