Iatrogenic Injuries

Although its exact origin is unknown, the familiar Latin axiom Primum non nocere (first, do no harm) has been spoken or thought by all physicians and healthcare providers at one time or another. For those of us who perform invasive procedures or surgery, this phrase lives deep within our psyche as we never want to have a complication ensue from any procedure causing injury to those we are trying to help. However, the only interventionalist who has never had a complication is the one who has never actually practiced his or her craft. All of us remember our complications much more than our successful cases and, because of this, we learn much more from procedures that go awry than from those that go smoothly. Fortunately, and much more often than not, clinical outcomes can be the same regardless of procedure-related complications provided we have the knowledge and tools to deal with complications and iatrogenic injuries when they occur. To remember another proverb written by the founder of America's first hospital—Benjamin Franklin—An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.