Reducing mortality for high risk surgical patients in the UK.

Over 40 million surgical procedures are performed per annum in the USA and Europe, including several million patients who are considered to be high risk (Bennett-Guerrero et al 2003). Overall, the risk of death or major complications after surgery in the general surgical patient population is low, with a post-operative mortality rate of less than1% during the same hospital admission (Niskanen et al 2001).