title: Anaesthesia related mortality in ASA-1 and 2 patients as a quality improvement indicator.
abstract: Quality and safety in anesthesia is usually monitored by analysis of perioperative mortality-morbidity and incidents. Clinical quality indicator, death within 48 hours of anaesthesia exposure is considered to be a flag that can alert to possible problems in individual patient care. The measurement of perioperative mortality as a quality indicator is a continuous peer reviewed quality improvement activity. Medical records and morbidity and mortality files were reviewed to see the trends and finding the benchmark of mortality in ASA-1 and 2 patient who died between 1992-2006 within 48 hours of anaesthesia exposure. Mortality in class 1 was nil. Anaesthetic mortality in ASA-1 and 2 patients was 0.35 per 10,000 and 0.74 per 10,000 of ASA-2 patient's volume. Anaesthesia-related mortality was 0.17 per 10,000 and 0.37 per 10,000 of ASA-2 patient's volume which is almost double of the overall calculated incidence. We suggest continuing monitoring of anaesthesia related mortality as a continuous quality indicator in developing countries. The reporting and analyzing of data according to the ASA status volume should be taken as a denominator. The available benchmark will help in evaluating the confounding factors and perioperative care of a particular group of patients.
authors: Department of Anaesthesia, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. mueenullahpk@hotmail.com
authors: Mueen Ullah
authors: MU
authors: Khan
authors: Fauzia Anis
authors: FA
authors: Khan
mesh_terms: D000758:Anesthesia / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000401:mortality*; D000768:Anesthesia, General / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000401:mortality; D019985:Benchmarking; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care