The 1992-3 and 1993-4 national confidential enquiries into perioperative deaths record the use of monitoring, the availability of facilities, and the experience of the doctors caring for patients. About two thirds of patients died three or more days after surgery, with most of the deaths taking place on a ward. A high percentage of those who died had had a cardiac or respiratory complication, renal failure, or infection, and some of these complications might have been preventable.
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