ACS updates Statements on Principles, including position on concurrent surgeries

Editor's Note

The American College of Surgeons on April 12 released an update of its Statements on Principles, which includes its position on the practice of concurrent surgeries performed by a primary attending surgeon.

The statement notes that in general, the primary attending surgeon should be in the operating suite or immediately available for the entire procedure, but there are instances that are valid exceptions.

Overlapping of two surgical procedures by the primary attending surgeon can occur in two general circumstances:

• When key or critical elements of the first procedure have been completed, and there is no reasonable expectation that there will be a need for the attending surgeon to return to the procedure. In this instance, another qualified practitioner would perform noncritical aspects of the first procedure while the attending surgeon starts a second procedure in another room.
• When key or critical elements of the first procedure have been completed, and the attending surgeon is performing key or critical elements of a second procedure in another room. In this instance, the attending surgeon must assign another attending surgeon to be immediately available to handle the first patient.

The patient should be informed in either of these circumstances.

These statements were collated, approved by the Board of Regents, and initially published in 1974.