Avoiding adverse events in interventional radiology - a systematic review on the instruments

Avoiding AEs is a pivotal fundament for high patient safety in an efficient interventional radiology (IR) department. Although IR procedures are considered to have a lower risk than their surgical alternatives, they account for one third of all radiological adverse events (AEs) and in general, the number of AEs is increasing. Thus, measures to prevent AEs in IR are of interest.

A systematic literature search was conducted via handsearch and Ovid. A structured data extraction was performed with all included studies and their quality of evidence was evaluated. Finally, data were aggregated for further statistical analysis.

After screening 1,899 records, 25 full-text publications were screened for eligibility. Nine studies were included in the review. Of those, four studies investigated in simulator training, one in team training, three in checklists, and one in team time-out. Eight were monocenter studies, and five were conducted in a non-clinical context. Study quality was low. Aggregation and analysis of data was only possible for the studies about checklists with an overall reduction of the median error per procedure from 0.35 to 0.06, observed in a total of 20,399 and 58,963 procedures, respectively.

The evidence on the instruments to avoid AEs in IR is low. Further research should be conducted to elaborate the most powerful safety tools to improve patient outcomes in IR by avoiding AEs.