1 Surgical Complications

       Luis M. Rubio‐Martinez DVM, DVSc, PhD, DACVS, DECVS, DACVSMR, MRCVS1 and Dean A. Hendrickson DVM, MS, DACVS2

       1 Sussex Equine Hospital, Ashington, West Sussex, United Kingdom and CVet Ltd. Equine Surgery and Orthopedics, United Kingdom

       2 College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado

Overview

      The term “surgical complication” is frequently used in the medical profession, but its definition in the medical literature has been inconsistent over the years. The World Journal of Surgery defines “surgical complication” as “any undesirable, unintended, and direct results of an operation affecting the patient that would not have occurred had the operation gone as well as could reasonably be hoped” [1]. This definition suggests that a surgical complication is dependent on the surgical skill of the surgeon, the facilities and equipment available and the condition of the patient.

List of Complications Associated with Surgery:

      “Surgical complications,” otherwise referred to as “operative complications,” are not restricted to the time window of the surgical procedure itself but comprise both intra‐ and postoperative complications [2]. The duration of surgery defines the time window for intraoperative complications; meanwhile, postoperative complications are not restricted to those occurring during hospitalization but are defined according to a time period. A 30‐day period after the surgical procedure, either during or after hospitalization, has been used in human medicine [2].

      All surgical procedures are associated with a degree of risk and the benefits of any procedure need to be weighed against any potential complications so that the clinician and the patient or animal owner can make a balanced and informed decision. This discussion should also cover complementary techniques that augment results to optimize physical, occupational and societal goals [3]. In veterinary medicine, owners’ expectations, engagement and commitment, animal welfare and economics need also to be balanced.

      Surgical complications can be classified into patient‐related complications (related to patient‐specific characteristics, rather than to a procedural error), and practitioner‐related complications (arising from errors that directly lead to undesirable and unintended results affecting the patient, but also as a result of a faulty technique) [3]. Although surgical errors may be frequently linked to complications, some errors may not result in complications.

      Recognition of errors and complications provide unique instances to learn from and to work toward avoiding or preventing their re‐occurrence [4]. To maximize this process the following practitioner's goals have been defined in human medicine [3, 5]:

      It is not uncommon for clinicians to adopt routines that prevent and manage complications on the basis of personal experience. However, in some cases this may be associated with “making the same mistakes with increasing confidence over an impressive number of years” [6]. In human medicine, standards of expected outcomes for groups of patients require evidence‐based practice, making seniority and individual experience less important [7]. Evidence‐based literature in this area has quickly developed over the last decades, and several textbooks and journals dedicated to surgical complications are available in the human field. The application of an evidence‐based approach for prevention, identification and management of surgical complications should result in a reduction in mistakes in the clinical decision‐making process. In addition, it will also identify areas on which further research is warranted.

Morbidity and Mortality

      Morbidity (from Latin morbidus, meaning sick, unhealthy) is a diseased state, disability, or poor health due to any cause [8]. Surgical morbidity relates to those morbid states that are related to a surgical procedure performed on a patient. Although traditionally defined by the presence or absence of specific postoperative complications, surgical morbidity represents any clinically significant, non‐fatal, adverse outcome associated with a surgical procedure [9]. Morbidity can be divided into local (associated with operation site, e.g. wound dehiscence) or general (related to any operation, e.g. acute renal failure). It can also be subdivided based on timely occurrence as intraoperative or postoperative; the latter being further considered as immediate, early, late or long‐term, although these are based on arbitrary time thresholds [9]. These categories overlap and are closely interconnected, as for example a specific, local complication such as surgical site infection may have general or systemic effects such as pyrexia, inappetence and motor dysfunction, which are not procedure specific [9].

      Surgical mortality is any death regardless of cause, occurring: (1) within 30 days after surgery in or out of the hospital; or (2) after 30 days during the same hospitalization period subsequent to the operation [10, 11]. In patients undergoing more than one surgical procedure during a single hospitalization, mortality is assigned to the first operation during hospitalization [10].

      In human medicine, postoperative morbidity has been shown to have a significant effect on mortality in patients undergoing major surgery; [12] however, the association between general postoperative morbidity and long‐term outcome or functionality is not well established [9]. This stems from the inconsistent reporting of morbidity in relation to definition, type and criteria, which leads to a lack of reliability in the recording of complications data [9]. Surgical mortality is a concrete universal outcome measure, but unlike morbidity, mortality recording has traditionally been inconsistent as a result of variable duration of hospitalization, follow‐up information, and number of surgical procedures performed during the same hospitalization period or different hospitalization periods [10].

      Evidence‐based knowledge on complications has rapidly evolved and continues to do so in human medicine. The Morbidity and Mortality Conferences (MMCs) were established in the beginning of the 20th century at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston [13], with the aim to improve the quality and safety of human healthcare [14]. The MMCs have become a requirement for all human medicine surgical training programs in high‐risk specialties