Anaesthesia related mortality in ASA-1 and 2 patients as a quality improvement indicator

Quality and safety in anesthesia is usually monitored by analysis of perioperative mortality-morbidity and incidents. Clinical quality indicator, death within 48 hours of anaesthesia exposure is considered to be a flag that can alert to possible problems in individual patient care. The measurement of perioperative mortality as a quality indicator is a continuous peer reviewed quality improvement activity. Medical records and morbidity and mortality files were reviewed to see the trends and finding the benchmark of mortality in ASA-1 and 2 patient who died between 1992-2006 within 48 hours of anaesthesia exposure. Mortality in class 1 was nil. Anaesthetic mortality in ASA-1 and 2 patients was 0.35 per 10,000 and 0.74 per 10,000 of ASA-2 patient's volume. Anaesthesia-related mortality was 0.17 per 10,000 and 0.37 per 10,000 of ASA-2 patient's volume which is almost double of the overall calculated incidence. We suggest continuing monitoring of anaesthesia related mortality as a continuous quality indicator in developing countries. The reporting and analyzing of data according to the ASA status volume should be taken as a denominator. The available benchmark will help in evaluating the confounding factors and perioperative care of a particular group of patients.