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| Image courtesy of noomh / FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
Patients often become unduly concerned with certain risks including death without any true understanding of how rare the risk may be. Unfortunately, such rare risks may be THE reason why a patient may refuse a needed procedure in the erroneous belief that something rare has an unacceptably high chance of occurring to them.
In such situations, it may be beneficial to compare the chance of a rare risk with more common scenarios that a patient may be more familiar with.
The risk of death is... (In bold are surgical procedures)
| Death from major surgery if performed within 30 days after a heart attack | 1 in 7 |
| Death from high risk open-heart surgery | 1 in 20 |
| Dying on the road over 50 years of driving | 1 in 85 |
| Dying from any cause in the next year | 1 in 100 |
| Annual risk of death from smoking 10 cigarettes per day | 1 in 200 |
| Death from UPPP surgery | 1 in 500 |
| ER treatment in the next year after being injured by a can, bottle, or jar | 1 in 1,000 |
| ER treatment in the next year after being injured by a bed mattress or pillow | 1 in 2,000 |
| Death by an accident at home | 1 in 7,100 |
| Death from tonsillectomy | 1 in 10,000 - 35,000 |
| Death by an accident at work | 1 in 40,000 |
| Death playing soccer | 1 in 50,000 |
| Death by murder | 1 in 100,000 |
| Being hit in your home by a crashing aeroplane | 1 in 250,000 |
| Death by rail accident | 1 in 500,000 |
| Being struck by lightning | 1 in 10,000,000 |
| Death from a nuclear power accident | 1 in 10,000,000 |
References:
Surgery and the D-Word: Approaching the Topic of Death and Dying with Surgical Patients. J Palliative Care Med 2:108. doi:10.4172/2165-7386.1000108
Risk perception and communication: recent developments and implications for anaesthesia. Anaesthesia 2001;56:745-55.
Risk language and dialects. BMJ 1997;315:939-42.
Safety of Adult Tonsillectomy: A Population-Level Analysis of 5968 Patients. JAMA Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2014 Jan 30. doi: 10.1001/jamaoto.2013.6215.
Risk perception and communication: recent developments and implications for anaesthesia. Anaesthesia 2001;56:745-55.
Risk language and dialects. BMJ 1997;315:939-42.
Safety of Adult Tonsillectomy: A Population-Level Analysis of 5968 Patients. JAMA Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2014 Jan 30. doi: 10.1001/jamaoto.2013.6215.
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