What is a Surgical Complication?

Excerpt

Sokol and Wilson elegantly describe some of the difficulties one encounters when setting up and maintaining a complication registry [1]. From their proposals, it follows that the further the definition is specified, the more restrictive it will be. For example, limiting the definition to a “result of an operation” excludes complications in patients that are not (yet) operated (i.e., pneumonia in a patient conservatively treated for bowel obstruction). Whether a complication could be “reasonably expected” is an interpretation of the data rather than something that can be used in a definition. Therefore, we plea to be more inclusive rather than exclusive and to use a broad definition. This will likely lead to a higher percentage of complications. The interpretation of complications using a broad definition requires a grading and subclassification system. …