Anaesthetic Mortality in Britain and France — Methods and Results of the British Study

Abstract

The aims of our study, set out in Table 1, represent the continued interest in this subject by the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland. Generous financial support for this study was provided to the Association by the Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust. A broadly representative committee (including anaesthetists, a surgeon and an epidemiologist, and others from government bodies) was established to oversee the study and a group of experienced anaethetists were appointed to conduct the study in five Regions in England, Wales and Scotland. Figure 1 shows the disposition of these Regions which comprise one third of all the three countries. It was very difficult to establish methods for data collection in the five Regions: to have studied the entire country in the manner to be described would have been almost impossible.

Table 1 Aims of British study