We found a recent article by 艩r谩mek et al1 on the usefulness of patient interview in identifying bleeding disorders to be quite interesting. Using the patient's interview as a medical or laboratory test in terms of odds ratio can give us an important tool to help us decide when there is enough reduction in diagnostic uncertainty.
In our laboratory we omit the bleeding time in the routine preoperative screen, as do many authors,2-4 using instead the patient interview to identify which patients should undergo the bleeding time test. This approach is also in agreement with the conclusions of 艩r谩mek and colleagues, with two exceptions: very young people and children.
In fact, the probability of bleeding disorders to develop is directly proportional to the age of the subjects. Some of the clinical events considered are very improbable or even impossible during childhood. Perhaps an age classification in some groups