Intraoperative deaths: who, why, and can we prevent them?
Dorken Gallastegi A, Mikdad S, Kapoen C, et al. Intraoperative deaths: who, why, and can we prevent them? J Surg Res. 2022;274:185-195. doi:10.1016/j.jss.2022.01.007.
While interoperative deaths (IODs) are rare, they are catastrophic events. This study analyzed five years of data on IODs from a large academic medical center. The authors describe three phenotypes: patients with traumatic injury, those undergoing non-trauma-related emergency surgery, and patients who die during an elective procedure from medical cardiac arrests or vascular injuries. This classification framework can serve as a foundation for future research or quality improvement processes.