Use of Computer Analysis

Use of computer databases has enhanced the ability of investigators to identify perioperative complications. In one of the earliest computer analyses of postanesthesia deaths, Marx and colleagues^[35] identified 645 individuals who died within 7 days after surgery from a total cohort of 34,145 consecutive surgical patients. The rate of mortality related to anesthesia was 1 in 1265 cases; in 1 in 1707 cases, death was related to postoperative management. The investigators deemed two thirds of all of the deaths to be preventable. Sanborn and colleagues^[80] used a computer anesthesia record to identify intraoperative incidents with high sensitivity and specificity. They were able to demonstrate that perioperative deaths occurred more frequently in patients who sustained an intraoperative incident than those who did not.