The WHO Surgical Safety Checklist: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Importance: In clinical settings surgical complications are seen to be responsible for a significant proportion of morbidity and mortality each year. Surgical procedures have become mandatory for fixing uprising complex pathological complications. Advanced technologies are helpful in the diagnoses and treatment of complicated pathological cases but human errors during surgeries cannot be minimized with such technologies. To address such issues WHO has bestowed a checklist at the global level to minimize the possible surgical complications.

Material and Methods: This article is written according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Secondary data was selected by three steps; identification of 350 articles, thematic analysis of 38 articles and selection of 7 articles following detailed review. Article selection process was done according to inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Results: Detailed review of available data shows direct relation between use of surgical safety checklist and reduction of surgical complications. Surgical risk factors in pre-operative, operative and post-operative phase are minimized following implementation of checklist. Implementation of this practice has significantly reduced human errors, thereby, improving surgical outcomes.

Conclusion: Available data points towards improved surgical outcomes following use of surgical safety checklist. However, further study is required in this area to determine exact efficacy of this practice.