Surgical safety checklist in pediatric surgery

Patient safety still remains as one of the biggest challenges for healthcare professionals. Surgical adverse events comprise 8% of all iatrogenic complications, half of them being easily preventable with simple checkup methods. Especially in pediatric surgery, where not only meaningful differences in anatomy or treatment response lie, but more importantly limited communication with the patient occurs, additional precautions have to be undertaken. In 2008, as a result of Safe Surgery Saves Lives campaign, Surgical Safety Checklist was introduced. A standardized checklist of all crucial perioperative steps is meant to be performed in every operating theater, ideally under all circumstances. The aim of our study was to present the current views and effectiveness of implementation of surgical safety checklists in pediatric surgery settings. We analyzed substantial articles on implementation and challenges of surgical checklist in pediatric surgery from period 2008-2018. Within 310 articles of PubMED database, 10 substantial articles on pediatric surgery safety were identified and reviewed. 70% of articles discussed the implementation of the checklist and post-implementation improvements, 20% included healthcare and parents attitude towards safety checklists. One article presented the variation of the surgical safety checklist in pediatric surgical and ambulatory settings. Most of the articles noted the prevention of adverse events correlated with the usage of the checklist, as well as positive attitude of healthcare providers and patients family towards checklist implementation was noted. Main challenge was the fidelity of the completion, especially in emergency settings. The Surgical Safety Checklist unifies the process of avoiding human error in surgery at all costs. Reviewed research presents improvements in prevention of adverse events in pediatric surgery, as well as innovative solutions for issues related mainly to pediatric patients, such as inclusion of guardians or even patients in safety check process, or implementing procedural or bedside safety checklists.