Reducing the incidence of adverse events in anesthesia practice

Background and purpose: adverse event during anesthesia is defined as an event that may result in the development of complications and is caused by human error, failure of the apparatus, the selected anesthetic techniques and individual reaction of the patient. Timely detection of adverse events prevents complications and their analysis through the register of the same to the adoption of preventive and remedial measures. Materials and methods:The Department of Anesthesiology in General Hospital Karlovac, in accordance with the accreditation standards of the Republic of Croatia monitors adverse events during anesthesia, the waking up period and the stay on the ward during the first 24 hours, and the type of anesthesia techniques applied. Results: During the 2012, a total of 4244 anesthesia with a 1.25% complications was done.We have been monitoring the number of anesthesia since 2011. when the percentage of complications was 5.4%. This is the basis to conclude that there is a tendency to reduce the number of complications. Anesthesia was classified as general and regional. The use of ultrasound contributes to safety of regional anesthesia, especially nerve conduction anesthesia of extremities and thus reducing the volume of local anesthetic administered and its toxicity. The incidence of complications of regional anesthesia among all regional anesthesias done during the 2012 was 0,31%. Conclusion: Keeping the register of complications during anesthesia has led to increased awareness of the need to record them and analyze the causes and consequences of complications at the department meetings. There is a trend of increased use of regional anesthesia techniques as indicated