Variation in the definition of ‘failure to rescue’ from postoperative complications: a systematic review and recommendations for outcome reporting (19 January 2024)

Summary

'Failure to rescue' is the rate of death amongst patients with postoperative complications and has been proposed as a perioperative quality indicator. However, there may be significant variation in its definition between research studies. This study in the journal Surgery systematically reviewed all surgical literature reporting failure to rescue rates and examined variations in the definition of the ‘numerator,’ ‘denominator’ and timing of failure to rescue measurement.

The authors found that failure to rescue is an important concept in the study of postoperative outcomes, but its definition is highly variable and poorly reported. They highlight that researchers should be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches to defining failure to rescue.