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

About 38 percent of adult patients experience an adverse event during or after surgery, researchers reported Nov. 13 BMJ.

Almost half of these complications lead to serious, life-threatening or fatal injuries, the results showed.

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

“Adverse events remain widespread in contemporary healthcare, causing substantial and preventable patient harm during the hospital stay,” concluded the research team led by Dr. Andre Duclosprofessor of public health at the University Claude Bernard Lyon 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 the operating rooms, but involved medical professions throughout the hospital,” their report noted.

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

Complications developed in 383 (38%) of the operations, with major adverse events occurring in 160 (16%), the results show.

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

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

Worse, many of these complications could have been avoided, the researchers said.

“About a quarter of all patients experienced potentially preventable adverse events, with one in 10 having events that were probably or definitely preventable,” the researchers concluded in a journal press release.

Possible reasons for these complications could include physician burnout, inadequate nurse staffing, and failure to use technology that could detect and prevent health problems, according to an accompanying editorial written by Helen HaskellPresident Mother Against Medical Malpractice.

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

“If we are truly interested in increasing patient safety, patients and families must be empowered to weigh the accuracy of accounts of their own care and participate in finding solutions,” concluded Haskell.

More information

Johns Hopkins Medicine has more about frequent complications after surgery.

SOURCE: BMJ Group, press release, 13 November 2024