Iatrogenic emergency medicine procedure complications and associated trouble-shooting strategies

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a consolidated reference for the acute management of selected iatrogenic procedural injuries occurring in the emergency department (ED). Design/methodology/approach A literature search was performed utilizing PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar for studies through March of 2017 investigating search terms “iatrogenic procedure complications,” “error management” and “procedure complications,” in addition to the search terms reflecting case reports involving the eight below listed procedure complications. Findings This may be particularly helpful to academic faculty who supervise physicians in training who present a higher risk to cause such injuries. Originality/value Emergent procedures performed in the ED present a higher risk for iatrogenic injury than in more controlled settings. Many physicians are taught error-avoidance rather than how to handle errors when learning procedures. There is currently very limited literature on the error management of iatrogenic procedure complications in the ED.