Perioperative complications, especially intraoperative adverse events (iAEs), carry significant potential for long-term sequelae in a patient's postoperative course. Without consistent and homogenous reporting, these events represent a substantial gap in contemporary surgical literature and clinical practice. By definition, an iAE is any unplanned incident related to a surgical intervention occurring between skin incision and skin closure. Despite the availability of multiple intraoperative grading and classification systems, colloquiallary known as: EAUiaiC, iAE severity classification scheme, Modified Satava, EAES Grading system, and ClassIntra® (formerly CLASSIC) , the reporting of intraoperative adverse events remains exceedingly rare. Further, while most studies report postoperative adverse events, only a fraction of surgical publications report intraoperative complications as outcomes of interest.
As part of the initiative known as the Intraoperative Complication Assessment and Reporting with Universal Standards (ICARUS) project, the investigators are working to develop a set of tools to aid in improving the homogenous reporting of iAEs. Accordingly, the investigators developed a web-based tool, known as the ICARUS Calculator, that integrates the four aforementioned iAE grading systems. The investigators plan to compare the consistency of grading responses between the ICARUS Calculator and the individual grading systems as presented in their respective publications.
