Researchers examined medical records of more than 40,000 patients, aged 45 years and older. The records came from 28 hospitals in 14 countries. Doctors had performed surgery on each patient, but none of the operations was related to the heart.
研究人员调查了4万多名年龄在45岁以上（含）患者的医疗记录。这些记录来自14个国家的28家医院。医生对其中每位病人都进行了手术，但是手术都跟心脏无关。
The researchers looked for patients with health problems or death within 30 days of surgery.
研究人员查找了在手术30天内出现健康问题或死亡的患者。
A total of five people died during the operation. That represents less than 1% of all patients. Another 500 patients, or 70%, died in the hospital. And 210 deaths, or 29%, did not happen until after patients were sent home.
一共有5人在手术期间死亡，这占所有病人的比例不到1%。另外占70%比例的500名病人在医院死亡，还有占29%的210名患者直到出院后才死亡。
Nearly half of all the deaths were linked to one of three problems: major bleeding, heart damage and blood infections.
近一半的死亡案例都跟大出血、心脏受损或血液感染这三大问题之一有关。
P.J. Devereaux is with McMaster University in Canada and was the lead writer of a report on the study. The report was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
P.J. 德弗罗在加拿大麦克马斯特大学任教，他也是这项研究报告的主要撰稿人。这篇报告发表在加拿大医学会期刊上。
Devereaux wrote that the research shows very few deaths happen in the operating room. He added that "there is a need to focus on post-operative care and transitional care into the home setting to improve outcomes." His comments were part of an email sent to the Reuters news agency.
德弗罗写道，该研究表明很少有患者死亡手术室。他还说：“有必要将重点放在术后护理以及家庭环境的过渡性护理中，以改善术后结果。”这些评论是他发给路透社的电子邮件的部分内容。
Worldwide, 100 million patients age 45 and older have surgeries unrelated to heart-related issues every year.
全球每年有1亿名年龄在45岁以上（含）患者接受与心脏无关的手术。
The researchers noted that technological and medical improvements have made such surgeries safer and less invasive in recent years. However, patients are also coming to the hospital sicker and being sent home with complex care needs.
研究人员指出，近年来技术和医疗进步使得这类手术更加安全，创伤更小。然而，患者入院病情也更严重，出院后也有更复杂的护理需求。
In the study, about half of the patients had high blood pressure. One in five had the disease diabetes, while 13% had heart disease.
在该研究中，大约一半的患者患有高血压。五分之一的患者患有糖尿病，还有13%患有心脏病。
More than one-third of them came in only for low-risk treatments that were not emergency operations.
其中三分之一的患者入院只是因为并非紧急手术的低风险的治疗。
Patients who experienced major bleeding after surgery were more than two times as likely to die within 30 days as people who did not have this complication. In addition, patients who developed heart injuries were also more than twice as likely to die.
手术后出现大出血的患者比未发生这种并发症的患者在30天内死亡的风险高出两倍多。此外，发生心脏损伤的患者死亡的风险也高出两倍多。
The study was not a controlled experiment designed to identify which if any complications actually caused any deaths.
该研究并非一项旨在确定哪些并发症会导致死亡的对照试验。
Barnaby Charles Reeves is with the University of Bristol in Britain. He told Reuters in an email that inflammation might be a common link to the health problems that were most responsible for deaths. He noted that, "Surgery causes a body-wide inflammatory reaction. This can lead to single or multi-organ failure which leads to death."
巴纳比·查尔斯·里弗斯就职于英国布里斯托大学。他在电子邮件中对路透社表示，炎症可能跟导致死亡的主要健康问题存在关联。他指出：“手术引发全身炎症反应。这可能会导致单个或多个器官衰竭，从而导致死亡。”
P.J. Devereaux said that patients might also not recognize that something is wrong when they begin to stop taking pain medication after surgery.
德弗罗表示，患者可能也没有意识到他们在术后开始停止服用止痛药时出现了问题。
The researchers called for more research into improved methods for observing the condition of hospital patients after surgery. They said these methods can help identify ways to lower the risk of death following an operation.
研究人员呼吁要更深入研究术后住院患者病情监测的改良方法。他们表示，这些方法可以帮助确定降低术后死亡风险的途径。