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Albert W. Cook, MD

JAMA. 1970;214(13):2328-2329.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Depending upon regional attitudes, "surgical mortality" may be defined as death from the time of initiation of an operation to ten days or to many months thereafter. Specifically, in the latter instance, it has been considered by some mandatory that the patient not leave the hospital and that death in the hospital at any time after an operation must be included in surgical mortality statistics. Such thinking has been extended also to include instances in which an operation is planned but death occurs before it can be executed. Designations of this character obviously assign a statistical significance to death related only to the time of surgery with complete disregard of all other items which, in truth, may have been more important. Indeed, the question can be rightfully asked, "What is a surgical death?"

There can be no question that certain events can be related to a surgical procedure and require . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
State University of New York Downtown Medical Center Brooklyn

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