Introduction:

The Adverse Event is the result of health care that unintentionally caused harm. Currently, adverse events are a global public health problem and a major challenge for prevention and control programs.

Objective:

To determine the causes that occasioned the occurrence of adverse events related to the surgical act in a third level of health care’s institution.

Methods:

A descriptive study with retrospective temporality was carried out in Cali, Colombia in 2015. A documentary review was carried out on 164 records of adverse events reporting. A data collection format was designed taking as reference the adverse event reporting instrument of the National Institute for Drug and Food Surveillance.

Results:

Registered adverse events were classified in preventable adverse events (58.44 %), non-preventable adverse events (13.64 %), unsafe actions (22.73 %), and incidents (5.19 %).

Conclusions:

Adverse events are due to untimely cancellations of surgical procedures, neglect in medication management, wrong identification of patients, non-hand washing by the surgical team; and lack of cleanliness in the operating room during refills.

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