Analysis of critical situations in thoracic surgery

Abstract

In the present study, we performed a retrospective analysis of critical situations in thoracic surgery between April 2007 and March 2015 at Hyogo College of Medicine Hospital. Critical situations involved 11 cases (0.42%). The causes of the critical situations were as follows: hypotension led to critical situations in 5 cases, fatal arrhythmia in 4 cases, and hypoxia in 2 cases. Critical situations were caused by surgical techniques in 8 cases and by patients' complications in 3 cases. As a result of analysis of the possibility to avoid the critical situations, they had been potentially avoidable in 8 cases. We consider that precise surgical techniques and sharing surgical strategies among the operating team are effective to avoid critical situations and promote safe operations.