Peri-operative sentinel events in patients undergoing one-lung ventilation in major thoracic surgery: A prospective observational study.

Patients undergoing thoracic surgery often need lung isolation and one-lung ventilation to allow surgical access and control of ventilation. Lung isolation is achieved by using either double-lumen tubes or bronchial blockers. However, the this may be associated with events such as inability to place the lung isolation device, intra-operative hypoxemia, hemodynamic instability and cardiac arrhythmias, and intra-operative malposition of the device. This study will review medical records of patients undergoing major thoracic surgeries and analyse such sentinel events.The study period will be for 6 months during which we will look at the data of approximately 150 patients undergoing one lung ventilation in major thoracic surgery. There will be no direct patient contact and data will be obtained from electronic medical records.