Effects of medical errors in gastrointestinal surgery on the

Errors that take place in gastrointestinal (GI) surgery

The gastrointestinal surgery is associated with the digestive system in the human body that is in the particular organ such as stomach and intestine. Therefore, it has been assessed that while performing the surgery it might result in attaining different medical error that can be in the form of surgical error while performing surgery (10 Shocking medical mistakes, 2012). The common reason for the surgical error is insufficient preoperative planning by the surgeon. It has been assessed that while engaging in gastrointestinal surgery it is required by the surgeon to be prepared and plan for the surgery so that it may minimise the level of error and complication. Along with this, another surgical error that often occurs while performing surgery results in retention of surgical items in the body of patient (Pearse and et.al., 2014).

This is considered as the major error that takes place in the gastrointestinal surgery as surgeon left the instrument within the body of patients. Through reviewing the national statistic and database, it has been assessed that 1,946,831 operations among the children over the past 17 years it has been found that around 413 cases were of retention of equipment or instrument in the body (Pediatric Medical Errors Most Common for Gynecological, GI Surgery, 2010). These medical errors, as well as incidents often, occurs with engaging in the gynaecological surgery or GI surgery etc. lastly, the error that takes place in the surgery include injury or cutting off the wrong artery, nerve or vein while engaging in the surgery. Therefore, all these errors take place while performing gastrointestinal surgery.

Complication after performing gastrointestinal surgery

After performing healthcare gastrointestinal surgery, it might results in arousing certain complication and problem to the patient it mainly results in anastomotic leakage, wound infection, etc.  anastomotic leakage is considered as dreaded complication after performing the surgery (Burgos,  Csendes and Braghetto, 2013). It mainly occurs in when there is a regeneration of the incorrect intestinal tissue within the anastomosis. Along with this, it also ensures while performing improper surgery there is a breakdown in anastomosis that results in leaking the fluid from the body that leads to the high risk among the human. Whereas, another complication that arises after performing or executing the gastrointestinal surgery includes wound infection. It mainly occurs in the situation when bacteria or any microorganism enters the body while performing surgery (Zimmitti and et.al., 2013). The surgeon while engaging in the treatment if do not take proper care of the hygiene that is washing hand or putting gloves, sterilising the equipment, etc. would increase the risk of wound infection among the patients. Therefore, to treat the wound infection surgeon may engage in cleaning the wound with debridement so that it may remove the dead tissue.

The effects of these medical errors on the health of patients

 Medical errors within the hospital are constantly increasing that results in affecting the health of the patient. The key impact of above medical error such as retention of surgical items, injury or cutting off wrong arteries or vein negatively affect the patient health. For instance, if the doctor is unaware regarding the error that they have to keep the surgical item in the body of the patient then it might result in enabling the wound infection that adversely impacts their health through constant pain within the body (Pucher, Aggarwal and Darzi, 2014). On the other, with injuring the wrong nerve or arteries, it might result in attaining death of the patient as it is considered as the key source through which blood is transfused in the human body. Along with this, injuring the wrong nerve might also effect the health of the patient by causing numbness over the body as well as pain in the whole body. In addition to this, the above medical error within the surgery also effects the health of a patient in terms that it might result in impacting the intestine area that might results in breaking of anastomosis that increases the leakage of fluids.

From the above-aforementioned report, it is concluded that engaging in gastrointestinal surgery may result in affecting the health of service user in the most adverse way that is it might also result in attaining the situation of death.

References

• Burgos, A. M., Csendes, A. and Braghetto, I., 2013. Gastric stenosis after laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy in morbidly obese patients. Obesity surgery. 23(9). pp.1481-1486.
• Pearse, R. M. and et.al., 2014. Effect of a perioperative, cardiac output–guided hemodynamic therapy algorithm on outcomes following major gastrointestinal surgery: A randomized clinical trial and systematic review. Jama. 311(21). pp.2181-2190.
• Pucher, P.H., Aggarwal, R. and Darzi, A., 2014. Surgical ward round quality and impact on variable patient outcomes. Annals of surgery. 259(2). pp.222-226.
• Ukkonen, M. and et.al., 2016. Severe Sepsis in Elderly Patients Undergoing Gastrointestinal Surgery—a Prospective Multicenter Follow-up Study of Finnish Intensive Care Units. Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery. 20(5). pp.1028-1033.
• Zimmitti, G. and et.al., 2013. Greater complexity of liver surgery is not associated with an increased incidence of liver-related complications except for bile leak: an experience with 2,628 consecutive resections. Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery. 17(1). pp.57-65.