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WHO issues a checklist to make surgery safer

Infection Control Monitor, June 27, 2008

The World Health Organization (WHO) issued its first guidelines to reduce complications and deaths from surgery on June 25.

The guidelines are a list of simple safety checks that WHO officials say could halve the rate of surgical complications. The list aims to help surgical teams avoid infections, improve anesthetic safety practices, and better communicate among members. The recommendations, for instance, include giving an antibiotic within 60 minutes of making a surgical incision.

About 234 million major surgical procedures are performed each year and a significant percentage result in preventable deaths and complications, said the WHO. These new surgical guidelines grew out of a similar checklist aimed at reducing infections in hospitals, reported The New York Times. To download a copy of the surgery checklist, go to www.who.org.

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