Abstract

CORDERO ESCOBAR, Idoris; SAINZ CABRERA, Humberto; SANTOS PENA, Moisés A  and  ROJAS SANTANA, Omar. Anesthesia and patient safety. An urgent call…. Rev cuba anestesiol reanim [online]. 2013, vol.12, n.2, pp. 151-157. ISSN 1726-6718.

Background: the development of Anesthesiology changed significantly in the last decades, mainly because of the change of vision and mission of the specialty. It does not mean to sleep and wake the patient up as in the 50´s during the last Century. Today, it is about the caring for the integrity of a human being that gives his life and this implies ensuring hypnosis, analgesia, neuromuscular block, hemodynamic and neurovegetative control and pain prevention. It is a far-reaching specialty. Objective: to perform an update of the possible causes of medical errors in the prevention of anesthetic complications Development: health commissioners are increasingly aware of the problems that are inherent in the patients' safety during a surgical procedure. Many initiatives have been created such as the called "Checklist" or WHO surgical checklist. There are different risk sources in the operating room which are grouped in the following categories: electrocution, skin burns, asphyxia, barotraumas, overdose, embolism, fire and lethargy, just to mention some of them. During anesthesia, the majority of errors in drug administration are totally or partially attributed to human error which is an inherent part in human psychology and activity; hence, the occurrence of errors can only be reduced, not eliminated. Conclusions: it is imperative to propose objective elements that relate safe anesthetic procedures; similarly, it is intended to achieve a safe surgical procedure in an ideal ambient and a safe transfusion in which all of us are imbued with the same purpose: to ensure the integrity and safety of a patient under anesthesia.

Keywords : seguridad del paciente; riesgo; complicaciones; surgical anesthetic procedure; patient safety; risk; complications.

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