Patient safety during anaesthesia: incorporation of the WHO safe surgery guidelines into clinical practice

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: WHO makes clear recommendations on how to improve patient safety during surgical procedures by using the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist. We will review the scientific basis of these recommendations and the practical problems encountered during introduction. RECENT FINDINGS: Perioperative severe complications and death are a major health issue in both developed and developing countries. Nearly half of these complications can be avoided. The systematic use of checklists and structured preprocedural and postprocedural briefings like a time-out procedure reduces perioperative morbidity and mortality. A broader use of checklists to cover the whole surgical pathway gives additional benefit, further reducing perioperative morbidity and mortality.Introducing patient safety procedures can be met with some resistance from healthcare workers and is helped by an organization-wide safety policy and a systematic approach. SUMMARY: There is sufficient scientific evidence to make the use of checklists and structured perioperative briefings and debriefings mandatory for the broad spectrum of operative procedures.