Technical errors and complications in orthopaedic XXXX surgery.

@entity1 @entity130 @entity260 @entity174
INTRODUCTION: Adverse events and associated morbidity and subsequent costs receive increasing attention in clinical practice and research. As opposed to complications, errors are not described or analysed in literature on @entity174 surgery. The aim of this study was to provide a description of errors and complications in relation to @entity174 surgery, as well as the circumstances in which they occur, for example urgency, type of surgeon, and type of @entity174 . METHODS: All errors and complications were recorded prospectively in our hospital's complication registry, which forms an integral part of the electronic medical @entity1 file. All recorded errors and complications in the complication registry linked to @entity174 surgery between 1 January, 2000 and 31 December, 2010 were analysed. RESULTS: During the study period 4310 osteosynthesis procedures were performed. In 78 (1.8  %) procedures an error in osteosynthesis was registered. The number of procedures in which an error occurred was significantly lower (OR  =  0.53; p  =  0.007) when an orthopaedic @entity130 surgeon was part of the operating team. Of all 3758 @entity1 who were admitted to the surgical ward for osteosynthesis, 745 (19.8  %) had one or more @entity260 registered. There was no significant difference in the number of @entity260 after osteosynthesis procedures in which an orthopaedic @entity130 surgeon was present or absent (16.7 vs. 19.1  %; p  =  0.088; OR 0.85). DISCUSSION: In the present study the true error rate after osteosynthesis may have been higher than the rate found. Errors that had no significant consequence may be especially susceptible to underreporting. CONCLUSION: The present study suggests that an osteosynthesis procedure performed by or actively assisted by an orthopaedic @entity130 surgeon decreases the probability of an error in osteosynthesis. Apart from errors in osteosynthesis, the involvement of an orthopaedic @entity130 surgeon did not lead to a significant @entity260 .
