Patient Safety in Surgery

Vaginal evisceration in premenopausal women after trans-abdominal hysterectomy is extremely rare in occurrence and only few cases have been documented in worldwide literature. Here we report a premenopausal woman with coitus induced trans-vaginal evisceration who had undergone trans-abdominal hysterectomy two years ago. This article highlights coitus as a trigger event for inducing vaginal evisceration and that vaginal evisceration caused by sexual intercourse should be considered in the field of surgery when a pre-menopausal woman presents with acute abdominal pain with no history of any other traumatic episode.

Autonomic dysreflexia is poorly recognised outside of spinal cord injury centres, and may result in adverse outcomes including mortality from delayed diagnosis and treatment. We present a spinal cord injury patient, who developed autonomic dysreflexia following incorrect placement of urethral Foley catheter. Health professionals failed to recognise signs and symptoms of autonomic dysreflexia as well as its significance in this tetraplegic patient. A tetraplegic patient started sweating profusely following insertion of a Foley catheter per urethra. The catheter was draining urine; there was no bypassing, no bleeding per urethra, and no haematuria. Patient’s wife, who had been looking after her tetraplegic husband for more than forty years, told the health professionals that the catheter might have been placed incorrectly but her concerns were ignored. Ultrasound scan of urinary tract revealed no urinary calculi, no hydronephrosis. The balloon of Foley catheter was not seen in urinary bladder but this finding was not recognised by radiologist and spinal cord physician. Patient continued to sweat profusely; therefore, CT of pelvis was performed, but there was a delay of ten days. CT revealed the balloon of Foley catheter in the over-stretched prostate-membranous urethra; the tip of catheter was not located within the urinary bladder but was lying distal to bladder neck. Flexible cystoscopy was performed and Foley catheter was inserted into the bladder over a guide wire. The intensity of sweating decreased; noxious stimuli arising from traumatised urethra might take a long while to settle. Inserting a catheter in a tetraplegic patient should be carried out by a senior health professional, who is familiar with spasm of bladder neck which occurs frequently in tetraplegic patients. Facilities for urgent CT scan should be available to check the position of Foley catheter in spinal cord injury patients when a patient manifests signs and symptoms of autonomic dysreflexia following insertion of a urethral catheter. When an isolated symptom such as flushing or sweating is noticed in a tetraplegic patient, doctors should seek out other signs/symptoms of autonomic dysreflexia.

Oral examinations have been a crucial format in ancient and modern assessment to evaluate and guarantee quality of medical education and thereby to secure patient safety. To achieve a high level of quality in the oral part of the final examination of medical students, a training program for oral examiners at the Medical Faculty of Ulm (Germany) has been established since 2007. However, little is known about the attitude of the examiners in regard to the impact of this training program and of oral examinations as instruments to ensure patient safety. All 367 academic clinicians from operative and non-operative disciplines, attending the one-day examiner training program at the University of Ulm between 2007 and 2012 have been asked to answer an online survey (EvaSys 5.0). Focus of the survey was to find out in which respect the examiners profited from the trainings, if the training effects were discipline-dependent, and to which degree the oral examinations could contribute to patient safety. Statistical analysis was performed using the t-test for independent samples. Results were considered statistically significant when p < 0.05. A total of 63 participants answered the survey, but in 4 cases the questionnaire was not fully completed (with single items missing). More than half of the study participants (n = 34/59; 58%) have experienced (at least sometimes or rarely) candidates that they deemed incompetent and perhaps even dangerous to the patients’ health who nevertheless passed the oral exam successfully. The majority of participants were convinced that oral examinations using concrete clinical cases could significantly contribute to patient safety, if grading is based on clear criteria and if examinations as well as grading are performed more critically. The impact of the training program was rated significantly stronger by surgeons than by non-surgeons in several categories. These categories included “strengths and weaknesses of oral examinations”, “reliability”, “validity”, “competence in grading”, “critical grading”, and “departmental improvements” concerning oral examinations. In respect to patient safety, it seems crucial to prevent incompetent candidates from passing the oral examination. The present study indicates the importance to continue and to develop our examiner trainings, with main emphasis on concrete clinical problems and a criteria-based critical grading system for oral examinations. Since the impact of the training was particularly high for colleagues from the operative disciplines, the training program should be offered especially in surgical departments.

In a recent letter to the editor (Patient Saf. Surg. 2013, 7:17), Weiss and Moramarco made the claim that surgical correction of idiopathic scoliosis is not supported based on the available literature citing no medical indication and high complication rates as compared to non-operative management. In this letter we show that there is a role for surgical treatment as the only predictable option to obtain correction of a curve and that the risk of complications with newer instrumentation does not approach 50% as cited by Weiss and Moramarco. We share the opinion with Weiss and Moramarco that a decision for surgery is not one to be made lightly, and should include options of purely observation, bracing, as well as surgery depending on the potential progression profile and conversations with the child and parents.

Simulation allows training without posing risk to patient safety. It has developed in response to the demand for patient safety and the reduced training times for surgeons. Whilst there is an increasing role of simulation in orthopaedic training, the perception of patients and the general public of this novel method is yet unknown. Patients and the public were given the opportunity to perform a diagnostic knee arthroscopy on a virtual reality ARTHRO Mentor simulator. After their practice session, participants answered a validated questionnaire based on a 5-point Likert Scale assessing their opinions on arthroscopic simulation. Primary objective was observing perception of patients on orthopaedic virtual reality simulation. There were a total of 159 respondents, of which 86% were of the opinion that simulators are widely used in surgical training and 94% felt that they should be compulsory. 91% would feel safer having an operation by a surgeon trained on simulators, 87% desired their surgeon to be trained on simulators and 72% believed that additional simulator training resulted in better surgeons. Moreover, none of the respondents would want their operation to be performed by a surgeon who had not trained on a simulator. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.969. There is also a clear public consensus for this method of training to be more widely utilised and it would enhance public perception of safer training of orthopaedic surgeons. This study of public perception provides a mandate to increase investment and infrastructure in orthopaedic simulation as part of promoting clinical governance.

Tỷ lệ sinh mổ đã gia tăng trên toàn thế giới trong vài thập kỷ qua. Sinh mổ là một dịch vụ chăm sóc sức khỏe quan trọng cho phụ nữ mang thai. Tuy nhiên, nó cũng có nhiều kết quả không mong muốn cho cả mẹ và trẻ sơ sinh. Do đó, nghiên cứu tổng hợp và phân tích meta này nhằm ước tính tỷ lệ, chỉ định và kết quả của sinh mổ tại Ethiopia. Hai mươi ba nghiên cứu cắt ngang với tổng số dân là 36,705 đã được đưa vào. Các cơ sở dữ liệu trực tuyến (PubMed/Medline, Hinari, Web of Science và Google Scholar) cùng với kho tài liệu trực tuyến của các trường đại học đã được sử dụng. Tất cả các tài liệu đã được trích xuất và đánh giá theo định dạng bảng trích xuất tiêu chuẩn và Viện Joanna Briggs tương ứng. Tỷ lệ kết hợp của sinh mổ, chỉ định và kết quả được tính toán bằng mô hình ngẫu nhiên. Tỷ lệ kết hợp chung của sinh mổ là 29,55% (95% CI: 25,46–33,65). Sinh mổ liên quan đến cả biến chứng cho mẹ và trẻ sơ sinh. Sự không tương thích giữa đầu và khung ch盆 tai [18,13% (95%CI: 12,72–23,53] là chỉ định phổ biến nhất cho sinh mổ, tiếp theo là mẫu nhịp tim thai không đáng tin cậy [19,57% (95%CI: 16,06–23,08]. Các biến chứng phổ biến ở trẻ sơ sinh sau sinh mổ bao gồm điểm APGAR thấp, ngạt thở trong giai đoạn chu sinh, nhiễm trùng sơ sinh, hội chứng hít phân su, tử vong sớm ở trẻ sơ sinh, thai lưu và sinh non trong khi đó, các biến chứng phổ biến ở mẹ sau sinh mổ là đi kèm sốt, nhiễm trùng vết mổ, tử vong mẹ, thiếu máu nặng và băng huyết sau sinh. Trong nghiên cứu tổng hợp và phân tích meta này, tỷ lệ sinh mổ là khá cao. Sự không tương thích giữa đầu và khung ch盆 tai, điểm Apgar thấp và sốt được coi là chỉ định phổ biến nhất của sinh mổ, kết quả trẻ sơ sinh và biến chứng ở mẹ lần lượt sau sinh mổ. Việc gia tăng sinh mổ không được chỉ định như một cách để làm gia tăng các biến chứng khác nhau cho cả trẻ sơ sinh và phụ nữ mang thai, từ đó cần nhiều can thiệp nhằm vào cả giáo dục cho các chuyên gia và công chúng.

Intraoperatively acquired pressure ulcers are serious postsurgical complications requiring additional treatment, reoperation, and extended hospitalization. No study has investigated the frequency of the ulcers caused by compression with a pelvic positioner, which is used in hip surgeries to stabilize patients in the lateral decubitus position. This retrospective study investigated the risk factors and the frequency of the ulcers caused by the use of pelvic positioners in hip surgeries. The records of patients who underwent surgical procedures under general anesthesia at our institution between January 1, 2016 and March 31, 2018 were reviewed. The inclusion criterion for the assessment of risk factors was hip surgery in the lateral decubitus position stabilized by a pelvic positioner. The exclusion criteria were patients with trauma, missing data, or a pre-existing pressure ulcer. Finally,.the study included 229 patients (265 hip surgeries). All the patients were positioned in the lateral decubitus position with the assistance of either a pelvic positioner, which had a single support fixture located over the pubic symphysis or a double support fixture located over the bilateral anterior superior iliac spine. Intraoperatively acquired pressure ulcers were diagnosed when ulcers were absent on admission and the redness that was observed immediately after surgery remained after 24 h. Multivariate analysis was used to identify factors associated with an increased risk for ulcers. Ulcers developed in 8 of 1810 (0.44%) patients who underwent orthopedic surgery. Seven of the 265 (2.64%) patients who underwent hip surgery in the lateral decubitus position stabilized by a pelvic positioner developed ulcers. All ulcers were located on areas of the body that were compressed by the pelvic positioner. After identifying controls for patient height (less than 154 cm), surgery duration (longer than 180 min), blood loss (more than 355 ml), and type of pelvic positioner used, we identified the independent risk factors for ulcers to be patient height < 154 cm (adjusted odds ratio, 12.8; p-value, 0.032) and the use of pelvic positioners with pubic bone support (adjusted odds ratio, 10.53; p-value, 0.047). The use of pelvic positioners with pubic bone support should be avoided in patients with a height of < 154 cm to decrease the risk of ulcers.

Surgical site infection is a common complication in women undergoing Caesarean section and the second most common cause of maternal mortality in obstetrics. In Ethiopia, prevalence and root causes of surgical site infection post-Caesarean section are highly variable. This systematic review and meta-analysis estimate the overall prevalence of surgical site infection and its root causes among women undergoing Caesarean section in Ethiopia. Systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to assess the prevalence and root causes of surgical site infection in Ethiopia. The articles were searched from the databases such as Medline, Google Scholar and Science Direct. A total of 13 studies from different regions of Ethiopia reporting the prevalence and root causes of surgical site infection among women undergoing Caesarean section were included. A random effect meta-analysis model was computed to estimate the overall prevalence. In addition, the association between risk factor variables and surgical site infection related to Caesarean section were examined. Thirteen studies in Ethiopia showed that the overall prevalence of surgical site infection among women undergoing Caesarean section was 8.81% (95% CI: 6.34–11.28). Prolonged labor, prolonged rupture of membrane, presence of anemia, presence of chorioamnionitis, presence of meconium, vertical skin incision, greater than 2 cm thickness of subcutaneous tissue, and general anesthesia were significantly associated with surgical site infection post-Caesarean section. Prevalence of surgical site infection among women undergoing Caesarean section was relatively higher in Ethiopians compared with the report of center of disease control guideline. Prolonged labor, prolonged rupture of membrane, presence of anemia, chorioamnionitis, presence of meconium, vertical skin incision, greater than 2 cm thickness of subcutaneous tissue and/or general anesthesia were significantly associated with surgical site infection post-Caesarean section.