Most people do not decide to undergo surgery unless there is a benefit. There is good reason for this. In addition to normal risks to one's health that are present, actions on the part of the individuals involved in the surgery can also pose dangers. For a variety of reasons surgeons and nurses can do things that actually leave the patient worse off than they were before entering the operating room.

While there are many things that can go wrong in an operating room, there are several mistakes that are commonly committed by individuals in the operating room. These surgical errors include:

• Operating on the wrong part of the body
• Leaving equipment used in a surgery inside the body of a patient
• Performing surgery on the wrong person

The journal Surgery recently published a study on the frequencies of these events, commonly referred to as "never events" and it is fair to say that individuals facing surgery will likely find the outcome alarming. The study utilized information from a six year period beginning in 2004 and ending in 2010.

During this period of time a total of 59 percent of patients were left with an injury considered temporary. Another 33 percent were left with injuries that were permanent. Perhaps most alarming, 6.6 percent of these incidents resulted in patients dying.

The two most common occurrences, which were nearly evenly split, were closing an incision while a piece of equipment was still in the patient and performing a procedure on the wrong part of the body. On 17 occasions during that six year period, procedures were performed on the wrong person.

Putting an end to these "never events" is important to many people. Implementing the use of checklists and other review plans are pointed to as ways that could reduce the frequencies o f these mistakes. What are your thoughts on this? Do you have suggestions on how to prevent these mistakes from happening?

Source: redorbit, "Study Shows Medical Errors Are Commonplace In Surgery," Lawrence LeBlond, Dec. 21, 2012