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WASHINGTON: The World Health Organization (WHO) unveiled a proposal
Tuesday to reduce the risks of complications and possible death
linked to major surgery by urging surgeons to use a safety
checklist, according to a study in the British journal The Lancet.
According to the WHO, half of the complications
resulting from major surgery may be preventable.
Major surgery occurs at a rate of 234 million
medical procedures per year—one for every 25 people—and studies
indicate that a significant percentage of them result in preventable
complications and deaths, the WHO reported.
About one million people die each year following
major surgery, according to WHO figures.
Studies have shown that in industrial nations,
major complications are reported in 3 percent to 16 percent of
surgical procedures, according to the WHO, with permanent disability
or mortality rates between 0.4 percent and 0.8 percent.
“In developing countries, studies suggest a
death rate of 5 percent to 10 percent during major surgery,” while
mortality rates from general anesthesia alone “is reported to be
as high as one in 150 in parts of sub-Saharan Africa,” the WHO
said in a statement.
“What we identified,” said Atul Gawande, a
surgeon and Harvard University professor who helped develop the
checklist, “was that the idea of a checklist to make sure the
basic steps are taken, could make a big difference not only in the
poorest part of the world but even in the rich ones.”
“We borrowed an idea that pilots have for 75
years,” Gawande told Agence France- Presse. “It’s like an
airline check, you make it short, simple and the team can do
better.”
“This has never been done before—it’s the
first time that a checklist for surgical care has been designed and
used to reduce complication,” Gawande said. “This will be in the
hands of the nurse, it’s a verbal check.”
Gawande said the checklist was designed to
target the three biggest causes of mortality in
surgery—preventable infections, preventable complication from
bleeding, and safety in anesthesia.
-- AFP
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