69 - During surgery, medical care

Summary

This is an external cause of death.

See also Map 52 Other external causes, which includes complications relating to surgery and medical care.

The highest rates are found in Scotland. Whether this is an artefact of different ICD coding of hospital deaths is not known. However, given that Scotland tends to have poorer health than the remainder of Britain, it is likely that surgical outcomes could well be poorer. Scotland also had far more hospital beds and hence more surgery taking place over the period studied here than other areas of Britain. Other clusters of high rates are found in Tyneside, around Birmingham and Manchester.

This is a relatively rare cause of death (on average, one per day) that is evenly distributed among men and women. Many of the cases are due to unavoidable risks of the particular surgery undertaken. Some of the cases are due to errors by surgeons, anaesthetists and other medical personnel. Others can be due to adverse reactions to drug treatment. Much depends, however, on how sick the patient was at the time – a fitter, healthier patient being likely to have better survival chances than a very frail one. Additionally, the complexity of the surgery itself is also a factor; emergency surgery carries a higher risk than elective.

The dramatic increase in people undergoing cosmetic surgery may see rates rise in the future, and see the average age decrease.

Stella Obasanjo, the first lady of Nigeria, and Olivia Goldsmith, author of The First Wives Club, both died while undergoing cosmetic surgery.