Assessment of surgical adverse events in Rio de Janeiro hospitals

A study on surgical adverse events (AE) is relevant because of the frequency of these events, because they are in part attributable to deficiencies in health care, because of their considerable impact on patient health and economic consequences on social and health expenditures, and because this study is an assessment tool for quality of care. We aimed to evaluate the incidence and the contributive factors of surgical AE in hospitals of Rio de Janeiro. This retrospective cohort study aimed to perform a descriptive analysis of secondary data obtained from the Adverse Events Computer Program, which was developed for collecting data for the assessment of AE in three teaching hospitals in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Incidence of patients with surgical AE was 3.5% (38 of 1,103 patients) (95% CI 2.4 - 4.4) and the proportion of patients submitted to surgery among patients with surgical AE was 5.9% (38 of 643) (95% CI 4.1 - 7.6). The proportion of avoidable surgical AE was 68.3% (28 of 41 events) and the proportion of patients with avoidable surgical AE was 65.8% (25 of 38 patients). One in five patients with surgical AE had a permanent disability or died. Over 60% of the cases were classified as not complex or of low complexity, and with low risk for care-related AE.