Review article: practical current issues in perioperative patient safety.

Area of Science:

• Anesthesiology
• Patient Safety
• Perioperative Care

Background:

• Anesthesia patient safety has significantly improved over 30 years.
• Improvements stemmed from "safety monitoring" behaviors, enhanced by electronic monitoring (e.g., capnography, pulse oximetry).

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide an overview and contextual perspective of current practical issues in perioperative patient safety.
• To identify challenges and opportunities for advancing anesthesia patient safety globally.

Main Methods:

• Review of current practical issues in perioperative patient safety.
• Analysis of factors contributing to safety improvements and existing threats.

Main Results:

• Success is threatened by complacency and production pressure in developed countries.
• Developing countries face challenges in implementing basic safe anesthesia standards (e.g., WFSA standards).
• Key issues include system factors (research, reporting, communication, checklists), monitoring (hypoventilation, sedation), and clinical care (medication errors, hypoperfusion, airway management, residual neuromuscular blockade, fires, obstetric anesthesia risks).

Conclusions:

• Empowerment of all anesthesia professionals is crucial for maintaining and expanding safety improvements.
• Addressing identified practical issues is essential for continued progress in perioperative patient safety.