Safe use of health technology ranges from the use of simple devices to those that are complex. These patient safety issues seem to be widespread and can occur at any point during the treatment of the patients ( Attigah, & Schäfer, 2016). The incidences associated with the safety of the patients when it comes to misuse of surgical staplers cannot be quantified. Health technology has become an integral part of medicine, and its application is also bound to some of the adverse effects that can be severe. The number of complications associated with misuse of medical technology has increased in the recent past and this raises alarm for having better ways of dealing with these issues. The misuse of surgical stapler has topped the list of the medical technology that causes complications to the patients. The surgical staples are used for connecting, removing the parts of lungs or bowels, or placing in sutures for closing the wounds on skins.
The surgical staplers are among the complicated devices that need meticulous techniques for them to be operated. Some models are used for both stapling and cutting of the tissues, while others are mainly used for sealing the tissues. The patients who have failed anastomoses, unexpected postoperative bleeding, tissue damage, intraoperative hemorrhaging, and other forms of harms due to misplaced surgical staplers, are likely to face severe complications ( Harris, 2015). According to food and drug administration (FDA), there are more than 100,000 cases that have been reported since the year 2011, and among them are 98,404 malfunctions, 11,181 serious injuries, and 412 deaths.
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Currently, the surgical staples are used for the closing of the incision after surgery has happened. They are placed with the staplers, which are specially designed. They are made of titanium, or plastic or polylactide-polyglycolide copolymer. The risks and problems occur due to the use of infections, which result from not taking care of the wound hence allowing the bacteria to get into the wounded area. The improper placement of the staples also results in wounds healing poorly, or the wound can end up not close. The problems may also occur as a result of the reopening of the wound after the removal of staples if they are removed too early. The allergic reaction to staple material is another cause of the problem. Surgical stapler may result in malfunctions at the time of surgery, and it leads to complications such as the increased risk of cancer recurrence, organ and tissue damage, sepsis, and bleeding ( Harris, 2015). The common types of malfunctions are the usage of the wrong size of the staples, stapler misfiring, misshapen staplers. All of these can expose patients to severe complications and prolong surgery.
The surgical stapler misuses occur mainly due to the malfunctioning of the devices that are used. There are more than 3.4 million staples, cartridges, surgical staplers, and components that have been recalled by the manufacturers since 2013. Among the recalls followed the reports of various defects, which resulted in injuries in the patients. There need to be new labeling instructions to assist the surgeons in understanding some of the risks that can be associated with different stapler models ( Goh, 2020). Lack of clear instruction from the manufacturer is among the causes of surgical staple misuse. The injuries and deaths as a result of misuse of surgical staplers are quite substantial and also preventable. The purpose of this paper is to make the hospital and all medical facilities to be in a better position for them to take necessary actions for protection of the potential harm that can be associated with the misuse of surgical staple. It will include the research and expert knowledge to assist in solving such related problems in the healthcare system. The white paper will provide information concerning the misuse of surgical staple and also give a proposed solution to this problem to lower the number of health-related complication that results from the misuse of the surgical staple.
References
Attigah, N., & Schäfer, M. (2016). Surgical staplers. Atlas of Upper Gastrointestinal and Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Surgery , 2 (4), 27-32.
Goh, B. K. (2020). A multicentre, randomized, controlled trial comparing reinforced staplers with bare staplers during distal pancreatectomy (hisco-07 trial). Annals of Surgical Oncology , 1 (5), 34-50.
Harris, K. (2015). Surgical staplers: Reducing operating time? BSAVA Congress Proceedings 2015 , 2 (3), 286-287.
