Journal of vascular surgery
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A variety of preoperative provocative tests have been used to define the risk of cardiac morbidity and mortality after peripheral vascular procedures, including dipyridamole myocardial scintigraphy and dobutamine stress echocardiography. Although highly sensitive, these tests are time-consuming and associated with significant expense. We investigated outpatient echocardiography as a less resource-intensive means of assessing cardiac risk with operation. ⋯ Outpatient echocardiography appears to offer a cost-efficient compromise between clinical criteria alone and provocative cardiac testing such as dipyridamole myocardial scintigraphy and dobutamine stress echocardiography in the preoperative screening of patients undergoing peripheral vascular surgical procedures.
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Comparative Study
Impact of clinical pathways on hospital costs and early outcome after major vascular surgery.
The purpose of this study was to determine whether major vascular surgery could be performed safely and with significant hospital cost savings by decreasing length of stay and implementation of vascular clinical pathways. ⋯ Same-day admission and early hospital discharge for patients undergoing elective major vascular surgery can result in significant hospital cost savings without apparent increase in morbidity or mortality rates.