BEIJING, Jan. 15 — If hospitals introduce simple surgical checklists during each operation, potentially life-threatening complications from surgery can be cut by about a third, a study by the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday.

The checklist is made up of a single page that requires only a few minutes to complete. Devised by the WHO, it has been tested in hospitals in Seattle, Toronto, London, Auckland, Amman, New Delhi, Manila and Ifakara, Tanzania.

The checklist focuses on three “critical” moments during surgical care: before anaesthesia is administered, before a patient is cut open, and before a patient is removed from the operating theatre.

It is designed to promote effective teamwork and prevent problems such as infection and unnecessary blood loss.

In total, data was collected from 7,688 patients, 3,733 before the checklist was implemented, and 3,955 afterwards. The rate of major complications fell from 11 percent to 7 percent, and the rate of inpatient deaths following surgery fell more than 40 percent from 1.5 percent to 0.8 percent.

“In specialties ranging from cardiac care to paediatric care, they could become as essential in daily medicine as a stethoscope,” said Atil Gawande, author of the study.

The WHO hopes that 2,500 hospitals around the world will introduce the system this year. 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-01/15/content_10662330.htm