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Intraoperative Technical Errors in Hand Surgery: Prevalence and Potential Root Causes

Received: 17 April 2023    Accepted: 16 May 2023    Published: 14 September 2023
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Abstract

Despite all efforts made by healthcare systems around the world to prevent medical errors from occurring, their incidence rates are still increasing, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to describe it as an epidemic problem. Realizing it is a thorny, sensitive subject, difficult to reach a consensus on, and despite the scarcity of sources related to hand surgery in particular, as well as the reluctance of some individuals and official institutions to provide information about it, we decide to tackle the issue because of its importance, especially since most of these errors are preventable and avoidable, by analyzing 245 cases detected or referred to the hand clinic in Benghazi between January 2020 and December 2021, who were suffering iatrogenic adverse effects related to previous surgical interventions. After excluding the non-surgical errors, we found that the percentage of intraoperative technical errors in hand surgery was 39.1%, with inadequate procedures being the most common at a rate of 65.6% and the lack of appropriately efficient equipment being the reason for 32.4% of these errors. To conclude, practical special training in hand surgery and the discovery of the root causes of these errors are the best ways to reduce them to a minimum.

Published in Science Journal of Clinical Medicine (Volume 12, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.sjcm.20231202.12
Page(s) 23-30
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Iatrogenic Complications, Technical Errors, Malpractice, Patient Safety

References
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Abdulrahim Aljayar. (2023). Intraoperative Technical Errors in Hand Surgery: Prevalence and Potential Root Causes. Science Journal of Clinical Medicine, 12(2), 23-30. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjcm.20231202.12

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    ACS Style

    Abdulrahim Aljayar. Intraoperative Technical Errors in Hand Surgery: Prevalence and Potential Root Causes. Sci. J. Clin. Med. 2023, 12(2), 23-30. doi: 10.11648/j.sjcm.20231202.12

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    AMA Style

    Abdulrahim Aljayar. Intraoperative Technical Errors in Hand Surgery: Prevalence and Potential Root Causes. Sci J Clin Med. 2023;12(2):23-30. doi: 10.11648/j.sjcm.20231202.12

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  • @article{10.11648/j.sjcm.20231202.12,
      author = {Abdulrahim Aljayar},
      title = {Intraoperative Technical Errors in Hand Surgery: Prevalence and Potential Root Causes},
      journal = {Science Journal of Clinical Medicine},
      volume = {12},
      number = {2},
      pages = {23-30},
      doi = {10.11648/j.sjcm.20231202.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjcm.20231202.12},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.sjcm.20231202.12},
      abstract = {Despite all efforts made by healthcare systems around the world to prevent medical errors from occurring, their incidence rates are still increasing, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to describe it as an epidemic problem. Realizing it is a thorny, sensitive subject, difficult to reach a consensus on, and despite the scarcity of sources related to hand surgery in particular, as well as the reluctance of some individuals and official institutions to provide information about it, we decide to tackle the issue because of its importance, especially since most of these errors are preventable and avoidable, by analyzing 245 cases detected or referred to the hand clinic in Benghazi between January 2020 and December 2021, who were suffering iatrogenic adverse effects related to previous surgical interventions. After excluding the non-surgical errors, we found that the percentage of intraoperative technical errors in hand surgery was 39.1%, with inadequate procedures being the most common at a rate of 65.6% and the lack of appropriately efficient equipment being the reason for 32.4% of these errors. To conclude, practical special training in hand surgery and the discovery of the root causes of these errors are the best ways to reduce them to a minimum.},
     year = {2023}
    }
    

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    T1  - Intraoperative Technical Errors in Hand Surgery: Prevalence and Potential Root Causes
    AU  - Abdulrahim Aljayar
    Y1  - 2023/09/14
    PY  - 2023
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    DO  - 10.11648/j.sjcm.20231202.12
    T2  - Science Journal of Clinical Medicine
    JF  - Science Journal of Clinical Medicine
    JO  - Science Journal of Clinical Medicine
    SP  - 23
    EP  - 30
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2327-2732
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjcm.20231202.12
    AB  - Despite all efforts made by healthcare systems around the world to prevent medical errors from occurring, their incidence rates are still increasing, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to describe it as an epidemic problem. Realizing it is a thorny, sensitive subject, difficult to reach a consensus on, and despite the scarcity of sources related to hand surgery in particular, as well as the reluctance of some individuals and official institutions to provide information about it, we decide to tackle the issue because of its importance, especially since most of these errors are preventable and avoidable, by analyzing 245 cases detected or referred to the hand clinic in Benghazi between January 2020 and December 2021, who were suffering iatrogenic adverse effects related to previous surgical interventions. After excluding the non-surgical errors, we found that the percentage of intraoperative technical errors in hand surgery was 39.1%, with inadequate procedures being the most common at a rate of 65.6% and the lack of appropriately efficient equipment being the reason for 32.4% of these errors. To conclude, practical special training in hand surgery and the discovery of the root causes of these errors are the best ways to reduce them to a minimum.
    VL  - 12
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Author Information
  • Hand Surgery Unit, Orthopedics Department, University of Benghazi, Benghazi, Libya

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