Table 3. Degrees of avoidability
0 UNAvOIDABLE: eg painful hernia operated upon by a
trained surgeon. Patient receives prophylactic heparin,
but develops a pulmonary embolus and dies on 12th day.
1 PARTIALLY AvOIDABLE: eg 80-year-old woman with
strangulated hernia taken to theatre in haste despite fluid
and electrolyte imbalance and dies of postoperative renal
failure.
2 AvOIDABLE: eg correctable lesion in fit patient missed or
mistreated; eg failure to diagnose diabetic pre-coma in a
patient with abdominal pain -appendicectomy but dies
in the postoperative period.
M MISMANAGED: eg patients with carcinomatosis who are
operated upon when it is obvious that they will die
anyway. This group
No comments:
Post a Comment