Surgeon technical skill, real-time problem solving, and communication quality are essential for avoiding harm during surgery. This study found that those types of human errors were responsible for 51.6% of 188 surgical adverse events at 3 hospitals. A past PSNet perspective delineates the evolution of surgical patient safety.

Team training is frequently used as a strategy for improving patient safety. In keeping with prior research, this study suggests that implementation of an interdisciplinary communication training program may help reduce the risk of adverse events.

The authors analyze existing evidence on using intraoperative cholangiography (IOC) to minimize patient injury during laparoscopic cholecystectomy. They conclude that strong observational evidence supports the use of IOC.

This study surveyed 2637 medical specialists and surgeons regarding how they would disclose harmful medical errors to patients. Prior research revealed that patients wanted the physicians to apologize for the error, explain how it occurred, and discuss how such errors could be prevented in the future. Whereas most respondents in this study supported error disclosure in general, only a minority of medical specialists and surgeons would explicitly inform the patient, especially for less clinically significant errors. Approximately half of respondents declined to explain how the error occurred or discuss specific plans to prevent such errors in the future. Most respondents would explicitly apologize to patients, although surgeons were significantly less likely to do so than medical specialists. A companion study explored factors influencing physician's support for full disclosure of medical errors.