Skip to main content

The Checklist

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover Cerebrovascular and Endovascular Neurosurgery

Abstract

In 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) published an important monograph describing the status of surgical procedures and complications worldwide [1]. The authors reported an unexpected high incidence of surgery based on an international data of 56 countries. They estimated between 187 and 281 million surgeries (one operation per every 25 humans) with a major complication rate of 3–22% and a mortality of 04–0.8%, almost amounting to one million people. As they stratified the analysis, the WHO suggested that death rates in some countries after major surgery could be as high as 5–10%. Most importantly, the data suggest that approximately half of all complications in this report were preventable.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. WHO Organization Surgery Safety Committee. WHO guidelines for safe surgery 2009: safe surgery saves lives. Geneva: WHO Press; 2009.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Pronovost P, Needham D, Berenholtz S, et al. An intervention to decrease catheter-related bloodstream infections in the ICU. N Engl J Med. 2006;355:2725–32.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Meilinger PS. When the fortress went down. Air Force Mag. 2004;87:78–82.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Hersch M. Checklist: the secret life of Apollo’s fourth crewmember. Sociol Rev. 2009;57:1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Beecher HK. The first anesthesia records (Codman, Cushing). Surg Gynecol Obstet. 1940;71:689–93.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Gawande A. The checklist manifesto: how to get things right. New York: Metropolitan Books; 2009.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Berenholz SM, et al. Eliminating catheter-related bloodstream infections in the intensive care unit. Crit Care Med. 2004;32:2014–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Bergs J, Hellings J, Cleemput I, et al. Systematic review and meta-analysis of the effect of the World Health Organization surgical safety checklist on postoperative complications. Br J Surg. 2014;101:150–8.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Haynes AB, Weiser TG, Berry WR, et al. A surgical safety checklist to reduce morbidity and mortality in a global population. N Engl J Med. 2009;360:491–9.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Urbach DR, Govindarajan A, Saskin R, et al. Introduction of surgical safety checklists in Ontario, Canada. N Engl J Med. 2014;370:1029–38.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Weiser TG, Haynes AB, Lashoher A, et al. Perspectives in quality: designing the WHO surgical safety checklist. Int J Qual Health Care. 2010;22:365–70.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Anthes E. The trouble with checklists. Nature. 2015;523:516–8.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Mayer EK, Sevdalis N, Rout S, et al. Surgical checklist implementation project: the impact of variable WHO checklist compliance on risk-adjusted clinical outcomes after national implementation: a longitudinal study. Ann Surg. 2016;263:58–63.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Reames BN, Krell RW, Campbell DA, et al. A checklist-based intervention to improve surgical outcomes in Michigan: evaluation of the Keystone Surgery program. JAMA Surg. 2015;150:208–15.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Bion J, et al. Matching Michigan collaboration & writing committee. BMJ Qual Saf. 2013;22:110–23.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Charles J. Prestigiacomo M.D. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Prestigiacomo, C.J. (2018). The Checklist. In: Gandhi, C., Prestigiacomo, C. (eds) Cerebrovascular and Endovascular Neurosurgery. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65206-1_9

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65206-1_9

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-65204-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-65206-1

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics