Safe anaesthesia for all Indians: A distant dream?

© 2017 Indian Journal of Anaesthesia | Published by Wolters Kluwer Medknow Surgery is performed to save lives and improve the quality of life of patients. However, unsafe surgical care can lead to significant harm. The crude mortality rate after major surgery varies from 0.5% to 5%.[1] In the European Surgical Outcomes Study, an international, 7-day cohort study, 1855 out of the 46,539 adult patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery died, giving a relatively high crude mortality rate of 4%.[2] A recent international survey of 44,814 patients from 474 hospitals in 27 countries found the crude perioperative mortality rate of 0.46%.[3] Complications after inpatient operations occur in up to 25% of patients; and at least, half of the cases in which surgery led to harm are considered preventable.[1]