• P Truran, R J Critchley, and A Gilliam.
• Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead, NE9 6SX England, UK. petertruran@gmail.com
• Surg J R Coll Surg E. 2011 Dec 1;9(6):309-11.

BackgroundUsing the World Health Organisation (WHO) surgical checklist has been shown to improve the safety of patients undergoing surgery. Its effect on the compliance to venous thromboembolism (VTE) guidelines has not been established before. Our objective was to assess if using the WHO checklist improved compliance to VTE prophylaxis guidelines.MethodsCompliance to NICE VTE guidelines were prospectively assessed in all general surgery patients over two separate audit periods, before and after 6 months of the routine use of the WHO checklist. Correct completion of the checklist was verified.Results370 patients (173 [47%] male, 197 [53%] female, mean age 61.6 yrs). Non compliance to NICE VTE guidelines was reduced form 16/233 (6.9%) to 3/137 (2.1%) after introduction of the checklist (p = 0.046 Fisher exact test). Non compliance was reduced in both emergency and elective procedures.ConclusionsEstablishment of the WHO checklist for routine use in all general surgery patients may significantly improve VTE guideline compliance of all general surgery patients.Copyright © 2010 Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (Scottish charity number SC005317) and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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