5 key points on spine surgery accidents and incidents

Spine
Laura Dyrda -

A new study published in Spine examines the accident and incident reports in spine surgery.

 

The study authors analyzed 320 perioperative incidents and accidents among 172 cases of 415 overall spine surgeries at a single institution. There were 42 accidents in 35 of the surgeries. The study authors found:

 

1. Accidents were more common among physicians than non-physicians, with 68 percent occurring among physicians compared with 8.5 percent occurring among non-physicians.

 

2. Forty percent of the cases had incidents that occurred in the operating room, compared with 9.5 percent with incidents that occurred outside of the operating room.

 

3. The incident rates were similar regardless of the years of experience among personnel involved in the events.

 

4. The most common major events were:

 

• Medication related
• Line and tube problems
• Falls and slips

 

5. Complications like laryngeal edema, ulnar nerve palsy and tooth damage occurred due to long-term prone position placement.

 

"Surgery and procedures in the operating room always have a risk of complications," concluded the study authors. "Therefore, a particular effort is needed to establish safe management of this environment and to provide advice on risk to the doctor and medical care team."

 

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