The Clavien-Dindo classification grades complications by the treatment they needed: grade I and II need no intervention or only drugs, grade III needs a procedure, grade IV needs intensive care, and grade V is death. Grade IIIa is under local anaesthesia; IIIb under general.
Recording the grade in every complication entry makes morbidity comparable across surgeons, units and published trials, and turns a list of events into an audit.
- Grade I-II: no intervention, or drug treatment only.
- Grade IIIa/IIIb: a procedure under local or general anaesthesia.
- Grade IV: organ support in intensive care; grade V: death.
- Record the grade in each complication entry at the morbidity meeting.
Why it matters
Published morbidity figures, including today's, are only comparable with your own if you grade the same way.
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