Cluster randomized trial to evaluate the impact of team training on surgical outcomes

Background

The application of safety principles from the aviation industry to the operating room has offered hope in reducing surgical complications. This study aimed to assess the impact on major surgical complications of adding an aviation-based team training programme after checklist implementation.

Methods

A prospective parallel-group cluster trial was undertaken between September 2011 and March 2013. Operating room teams from 31 hospitals were assigned randomly to participate in a team training programme focused on major concepts of crew resource management and checklist utilization. The primary outcome measure was the occurrence of any major adverse event, including death, during the hospital stay within the first 30 days after surgery. Using a difference-in-difference approach, the ratio of the odds ratios (ROR) was estimated to compare changes in surgical outcomes between intervention and control hospitals.

Results

Some 22 779 patients were enrolled, including 5934 before and 16 845 after team training implementation. The risk of major adverse events fell from 8·8 to 5·5 per cent in 16 intervention hospitals (adjusted odds ratio 0·57, 95 per cent c.i. 0·48 to 0·68; P < 0·001) and from 7·9 to 5·4 per cent in 15 control hospitals (odds ratio 0·64, 0·50 to 0·81; P < 0·001), resulting in the absence of difference between arms (ROR 0·90, 95 per cent c.i. 0·67 to 1·21; P = 0·474). Outcome trends revealed significant improvements among ten institutions, equally distributed across intervention and control hospitals.

Conclusion

Surgical outcomes improved substantially, with no difference between trial arms. Successful implementation of an aviation-based team training programme appears to require modification and adaptation of its principles in the context of the the surgical milieu. Registration number: NCT01384474 (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov).

[Prognostic value of thallium 201 myocardial scintigraphy with dipyridamole before peripheral arterial surgery]

The evaluation of patients who are candidates for peripheral arterial surgery is difficult. The aim of this study was to show that dipyridamole stress scintigraphy could be a prognostic aid for patient selection. Between 1991 and 2000, 275 patients underwent dipyridamole stress myocardial scintigraphy before peripheral arterial surgery of the lower limbs (49%), the aortic (33%) or carotid arteries (18%). A perfusion defect was observed in 145 patients suggesting myocardial ischaemia in 79 cases and myocardial infarction in 66 cases. Twenty-seven of the 79 ischaemic patients underwent a preoperative coronary revascularisation. The operative adverse coronary events (5%) were: 7 non-fatal myocardial infarctions and 7 acute coronary syndromes. The 79 ischaemic patients had a higher risk of adverse coronary events: 11% (ischaemia) versus 3% (no ischaemia) (p < 0.01). Myocardial scintigraphy allowed stratification of patients with an intermediate risk of Eagle's score into high coronary risk (15%, ischaemia) or low coronary risk (2%, no ischaemia) (p < 0.01). The extent of the ischaemia was associated with a higher risk of adverse coronary events: 4 zones (20%) versus 1 zone (5%) (p = 0.02). Preoperative coronary revascularisation tended to reduce the risk of adverse coronary events from 15% to 4% (p = NS). Myocardial ischaemia (p < 0.0001) and left bundle branch block (p = 0.002) were the two predictive factors of an adverse operative coronary event. Thallium-dipyridamole myocardial scintigraphy with a high negative predictive value (97%) is a useful tool for the identification of high risk patients for whom an aggressive preoperative therapeutic strategy may be beneficial.