Emergency Colorectal Surgery Checklist and Technical Considerations

A surgical checklist is a step-by-step control procedure carried on for checking through the most delicate phases of the perioperative period, in order to increase surgical patient’s safety and avoid preventable complications. The checklist implementation within operating rooms have proved to be effective in reducing morbidity and mortality rates significantly, without being costly and lengthy. These results have been confirmed also in emergency surgery, which represents in itself a cause of higher risks for patients. Thus, the checklist use has rapidly spread out all over the world. The mechanism responsible for the improvement of surgical outcomes is not completely clear, partly due to ameliorated perioperative practices and better communication among surgical team members. This chapter reports a general overview on this theme and describes the way of using the World Health Organization (WHO) Surgical Safety Checklist (SSC), which is by far the most common surgical checklist worldwide. A curious historical reference concerning the development of checklists in aviation is also provided, helping understand the logic behind their application to the surgical field. Moreover, this chapter reports some useful paragraphs concerning technical considerations, notably the necessary equipment in colorectal surgery, patient positioning and ports placement.