Anaesthetic Deaths: Medico-legal Aspects

Anaesthesia is almost an integral part of surgery. Almost each and every surgery needs anaesthesia. Sometimes mishaps will occur which leads to death of patient who undergone surgery. An anesthetic death is one of them. It is defined as death occurring within 24 hours of administration of anaesthesia due to causes related to anaesthesia. Since there is little interaction between the patient and the anaesthesiologist, people are not much aware about the anaesthesia & the risks involved in it. In perioperative deaths, anaesthetists are also blamed and relatives of the deceased approach to the police or court of law. To avoid this mess, the anaesthetist must do pre-anaesthetic checkup, take informed consent, check the equipment/monitors/drugs, attends the patient till he comes out from the effect of anaesthesia.

Since in this modern era of information & technology, every health personnel including the anaesthetist should update their knowledge and skill to avoid unnecessary litigations. This paper will throw some light on the medico-legal aspects related to the anaesthetic deaths.