1 in 3 surgical patients suffer from complications

THURSDAY, Nov. 14, 2024 (HealthDay News) — More than a third of surgical patients develop complications as a result of their procedure, a new study shows.

About 38% of adult patients experience an adverse event during or after their surgery, researchers reported Nov. 13 in the journal BMJ.

Nearly half of these complications result in serious, life-threatening or fatal damage, the results showed.

In addition, about 60% of complications were potentially preventable and 21% were definitely or probably preventable, researchers report.

“Adverse events remain widespread in contemporary healthcare and cause significant and avoidable harm to patients during hospital admission,” concluded the research team led by Dr. André Duclosprofessor of public health at Claude Bernard Lyon University in France.

However, surgeons are not the only reason why these complications occurred, the researchers found.

“These incidents were not just a concern for surgeons in operating rooms, but affected healthcare professions across the hospital,” their report said.

For the study, researchers analyzed more than 1,000 admissions for surgeries at 11 hospitals in Massachusetts that occurred in 2018.

Complications occurred in 383 (38%) of the operations, with 160 (16%) causing serious side effects, the results show.

About half (49%) of complications were related to surgical procedures, followed by adverse drug reactions (27%), healthcare-related infections (12%) and hospital-related problems such as falls or pressure ulcers (11%).

Half of complications occurred in general care units, compared with 26% in operating rooms and 13% in intensive care units.

Even worse, many of these complications could have been avoided, researchers said.

“About a quarter of all patients experienced potentially preventable adverse events, with one in ten related to events that were probably or definitely preventable,” the researchers concluded in a press release.

Possible reasons for these complications could include physician burnout, inadequate nurse staffing and the inability to use technology that could detect and prevent the health problems, according to an accompanying editorial written by Helen Haskellchairman of Mothers Against Medical Errors.

But these events also continue to occur because little progress has been made in recruiting patients and families to help unravel the causes of complications, Haskell added.

“If we are truly interested in advancing patient safety, patients and families must be given the opportunity to voice their opinions on the accuracy of records of their own care and to participate in finding solutions,” Haskell concluded.

More information

Johns Hopkins Medicine has more to offer common complications after surgery.

SOURCE: BMJ Group, press release, November 13, 2024