Plastic Surgeon Check List
Some 40 million inpatient surgical procedures and 30 million outpatient surgeries are performed in the United States each year; of those nearly 10 million are cosmetic. According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 11.7 million cosmetic surgical and non-surgical procedures were performed last year alone.
Studies show that the number of cosmetic procedures performed in the U.S. increase each year. The Aesthetic Society recorded a 457 percent in the overall numbers of plastic surgery procedures since 1997.
There are numerous reasons individuals undergo plastic surgery — the most common, however is to improve their appearance and self esteem. But what happens when a surgical error is made and the patient is left worse off after the surgery?
Unfortunately, mistakes during surgery occur more often than most of us know. According to the United Nations Agency, 7 million patients suffer from complications after surgery each year; half of which could have been prevented. Prevented by what?
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), most of the complications seen after surgical procedures can be prevented by simple reminders such as: marking the surgical site, double checking with patients for any allergies, counting the sponges and even counting the number of needles after each procedure. It is the number of surgical mistakes that could have been prevented by such reminders that encouraged the WHO to publish its surgical safety checklist last Wednesday.
Members of the WHO argue that the use of the checklist should nearly double the likelihood patients will not suffer from complications after surgery. The checklist reminds healthcare professionals to ask each patient a series of questions before the start of anesthesia and another series of questions before they are free to go. This, alone, will help mistakes from occurring suggests members of the WHO.
The checklist also includes a page to confirm that the surgical team has taken stock of each item before moving on to the next phase of the procedure. This is to prevent the doctors from leaving an unwanted item behind in the patient. Donald Gable of Philadelphia wasn’t so lucky. Six weeks after having heart surgery, doctors discovered a two-foot-long guide wire in his chest. An X-ray showed it extending from his groin to his upper chest. Luckily, the wire was successfully removed without harming Donald, but had it punctured a vein, he may not have been so lucky.
Each year hundreds of surgical tools such as gauze, scalpels, needles, retractors are found left behind in patients. This is one of the many complications the WHO hopes to prevent with the use of their newly released safety checklist.
