Preventable Anesthesia-Related Adverse Events at a Large Tertiary Care Center: A Nine-Year Retrospective Analysis

Anesthesiologists have studied adverse events during anesthesia dating back to the original critical incident studies of the 1970s. Despite improvements, adverse events continue to occur. The purpose of this study was to characterize anesthesia-related adverse events within a single large tertiary care institution and to distinguish preventable adverse events from those that are not preventable.

A retrospective review of all cases referred to the Performance Improvement (PI) Committee at a large academic medical center from 2007 to 2015 was performed. The primary adverse event and underlying cause of the event were determined using a two-reviewer system for each case. Univariate analysis was performed to determine overall characteristics of cases, the underlying causes of adverse events, and whether the event was preventable; p < 0.05 was considered significant.

A total of 1,424 records were referred to the PI Committee during the study period. After exclusions, 747 cases were included in the final analysis. Respiratory complications (n = 245) were the most frequently reported adverse event type. The most common respiratory events included unplanned reintubations, aspirations, and respiratory arrests. A large proportion of the adverse events (42.8%) may have been preventable. In particular, respiratory, trauma, and medication adverse events were often preventable.

Anesthesia-related adverse events continue to occur even though the field is considered at the forefront of patient safety. Respiratory, trauma, and medication events were often preventable, and these represent areas to allocate resources to improve patient safety and perioperative outcomes.