More than a third of surgical patients suffer from complications while in the hospital Nearly half of these complications result in harm ranging from serious to fatal Many of these complications are preventable 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 suffer an adverse event during or following their surgery, researchers reported Nov.
13 in the BMJ . Nearly half of these complications result in serious, life-threatening or fatal harm, results showed. What’s more, about 60% of the complications were potentially preventable and 21% were definitely or probably preventable, researchers report.
“Adverse events remain widespread in contemporary healthcare, causing substantial and preventable patient harm during hospital admission,” concluded the research team led by Dr. Andre Duclos , a professor of public health with the University Claude Bernard Lyon in France. However, surgeons aren’t the only reason why these complications occurred, the researchers found.
“These incidents were not solely a concern for surgeons in operating rooms, but involved healthcare professions throughout the hospital,” their report noted. For the study, researchers analyzed more than 1,000 admissions for surgery at 11 Massachusetts hospitals that took place in 2018. Complications developed in 383 (38%) of surgeries, with major adverse events occurring in.