Surgical adverse events: a systematic review.

Area of Science:

• Medical research
• Patient safety
• Surgical outcomes

Background:

• Surgical adverse events represent a significant concern in healthcare.
• Understanding the frequency, severity, and preventability of these events is crucial for improving patient safety.
• This review focuses on quantifying harm to guide targeted interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review and quantify the frequency, severity, and preventability of surgical adverse events.
• To identify the primary causes of adverse events in general surgery.
• To inform patient safety improvement efforts by highlighting areas of potentially preventable harm.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review of retrospective record review studies on adverse events.
• Searches conducted across multiple databases including Cochrane, MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, and CINAHL.
• Independent review by two authors to assess inclusion criteria, methodology, and endpoints.

Main Results:

• Fourteen studies involving 16,424 patients were analyzed.
• Adverse events occurred in 14.4% of patients; 5.2% were deemed potentially preventable.
• Errors in nonoperative management were more frequent causes of adverse events than surgical technique errors.

Conclusions:

• A significant proportion of surgical adverse events are potentially preventable.
• Nonoperative management errors are a key area for intervention to reduce patient harm.
• Findings provide data to prioritize patient safety initiatives in surgical care.