What the papers say

doi:10.1136/bmj.b517

Published 10 February 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b517
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b517

Letters

Surgical safety checklists

What the papers say

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

If the results of the WHO surgical safety study are confirmedby further trials then the introduction of the safety checklistmust rank as one of the greatest discoveries in the historyof surgery, probably even eclipsing the introduction of antisepsis,asepsis, and antibiotics.¹ ² Soar and colleagues don’tpraise the study enough.³ They do not mention the truly epochmaking event: in two of the eight hospitals surgical mortality(from all causes, not just preventable errors) not only fellbut was completely eliminated.

But before we get too excited, 12 points should be clarified.

The hospitals selected do not represent the world but are allof Anglo-American provenance (either English speaking or informer British/American dependencies)
The hospital cohortsdo not match in population, case mix, andso on, yet the resultsare still added together to achieve significance
What othercomplications (apart from wound infection) have decreased?
Causesof . . . [Full text of this article]