According to the World Health Organization, surgical procedures are very common: almost one in every 25 individuals undergoes a surgical procedure every year. A surgical complication is any undesirable and unintended effect resulting from a surgical procedure that should not have occurred according to standard expectations. Complications that occur during surgery are either related to anesthesia or to injuries inflicted by the surgical tools.
Bleeding
Most surgical procedures carry a risk of injury to a vascular structure in the body and the possibility of excessive bleeding. According to a 2000 study published in the journal Anesthesia and Analgesia, laparascopic cholecystectomy, or removal of the gall bladder through a small incision in the abdomen, is sometimes complicated by injury to a major blood vessel, the abdominal aorta. In fact, bleeding due to this injury accounts for almost one-third of serious complications in laparascopic cholecystectomy. This risk of vascular injury is very real in all abdominal operations and results in bleeding that could be potentially life-threatening. In the event of massive bleeding, the patient may require a blood transfusion.
Injury
A 2001 study published in The Texas Heart Institute Journal notes that heart surgery results in nerve damage in anywhere between 2 to 38 percent of people. One of the nerves commonly damaged is the long thoracic nerve. The muscle paralyzed by this injury is the serratus anterior muscle, and it is responsible for holding the scapula --the shoulder bone on the back--in place. With injury to this nerve, a condition called "winging of the scapula" develops, where the arm cannot be raised past 90 degrees from the side.
Damage to internal organs, such as the spleen, can also occur due to faulty and imprecise surgical technique.
Cardiac Arrest
One of the most catastrophic, and the most feared, complications in surgery is cardiac arrest. It has been touted by the Annals of Surgery as one of the major dangers of surgery. It is postulated that cardiac arrest during surgery occurs, at least partly, due to reduced oxygen supply to the heart muscle induced by the anesthesia. There are some predisposing factors for cardiac arrest such as preexisting anemia or excessive blood loss during or after surgery. Thankfully, this cardiac arrest is reversed in a large percentage of cases after proper resuscitation is applied by the anesthesiologist, and many patients recover with no ill-effects.
References
- WHO: 10 facts on safe surgery
- "World Journal of Surgery"; What is a Surgical Complication? ; Sokol D. et al.; February 2008
- "Anesthesia and Analgesia"; Injury to the Abdominal Aorta during Laparoscopic Surgery: An Unusual Presentation; A. Mases; September 2000
- "Texas Heart Institute Journal"; Iatrogenic Injury to the Long Thoracic Nerve an Underestimated Cause of Morbidity after Cardiac Surgery; F. Bizzari et al. ; 2001;
- "Annals of Surgery"; Cardiac Arrest During Surgery; F. Glenn ; June 1953
