Post Mortem Study of Postsurgical Mortality in Secunderabad City

Abstract

BACKGROUND:Surgery is an essential part of present medical practice and it is one of the important tools of curing many diseases. Surgery is done in elective cases after the diagnosis is promptly made before operating, and in emergency surgeries an empirical diagnosis is made and after opening moderation is adopted in the procedure. In spite of all safety precautions adopted, death may result in some cases. Then a question arises about the competency and efficiency of the surgeon, investigations, interpretation about the diagnosis of the disease and the management of the case. To answer these questions we need to do a Pathological (Clinical) autopsy than a medicolegal autopsy. The scope of the present study was only to find which of the surgeries resulted in most of the fatal outcomes and try to determine the underlying causes it has its own limitations. Deciding about the occurrence of Medical Negligence and fixation of responsibility is beyond the scope of this study. AIMS: To know the incidence of surgical postoperative deaths of Gandhi Hospital, Secunderabad [A.P], during year 2006. RESULTS: The incidence of surgical death in this group of population is about 1.5%. Most number of cases involved was males and belongs to 22-45 year age group. 75% of deaths occurred in Males of this group as compared to females who were 25% of the total study population, however it was not statistically significant. 86.6% of the surgeries with fatal outcome were done in emergency conditions and rest was done on elective basis. Study also shows that the main anatomical locations involved are the head and neck region 48.3% which resulted in most number of postsurgical mortality. CONCLUSIONS: The frequency of death occurring after emergency surgeries is more than that of elective surgeries probably indicating that in emergency surgeries there was some hastiness in selecting the cases for surgery, presence of co -morbid conditions and lack of complete investigations due to time constraints could be among the factors or the cases were in critical condition before surgery.