Despite years of textbook education and then hands-on training, surgeons sometimes make egregious mistakes in operating rooms. Dozens of people every week undergo the wrong procedure or the right procedure performed on the wrong part of their body. Surgeons also...
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Surgical Errors
How foreign objects can be left in the body after surgery
You likely would not expect to wake up from surgery to find a surgeon left a pair of scissors in your body. However, it can happen. It is possible that over one thousand people are victims of retained objects in the body every year. A common type of medical...
Is enough being done about surgeons who are too old to operate?
There’s been a lot of discussion in the media lately around aging and what makes someone “too old” to do a particular job. Often, people must decide that for themselves. However, people aren’t always the best judges of their own limitations as they get older....
Some of the most serious surgical risks arise before an operation
Surgery is innately dangerous because it involves cutting the human body. Even with years of professional training and a precisely controlled environment, countless things can go wrong. Every year, there are thousands of preventable mistakes ranging from the wrong...
There are 2 types of wrong-site surgery
One example of medical malpractice is wrong-site surgery. This can be highly detrimental to the patient, causing them immediate harm that may not be repairable. Even when it can be repaired, it still necessitates a second surgery or further medical treatment. But...
The risk of foreign items left behind is higher in some surgeries
Certain surgical mistakes are so blatant that people might think of them as issues that no longer affect modern medical care. Between specialized training and strict standards maintained by corporate medical employers, there is a lot of pressure on medical...
Wrong-site surgical errors can prove devastating for patients
Most people naturally feel a bit nervous when their physician recommends a surgical procedure. While surgeries generally have very high success rates, there are risks with even the most routine of procedures. The more involved or cutting-edge a procedure is, the...
The impact of surgeon stress on operating room mistakes
Surgeons have a big job. They literally have their patients’ lives in their hands. The complexity of surgical procedures combined with the critical nature of the operating room (OR) environment can lead to significant stress among surgeons. This stress, if not managed...
Why is this popular plastic surgery so dangerous?
Plastic surgery is indeed surgery. That means it’s crucial not to trust any procedure to a doctor who’s not a board-certified plastic surgeon. It’s best to choose one who has done a lot of the particular procedure you’re having and to research their record of success...
How likely is a surgeon to leave something behind in you?
The term “retained foreign bodies” (RFBs) is the medical way of describing items left behind unintentionally when a patient undergoes surgery. Surgical staff typically need to account for every item used during surgery, including gauze and clamps. RFBs could cause...