TY - JOUR
T1 - Death within 48 h
T2 - adverse events after general surgical procedures
AU - Mullen, Russell
AU - Scollay, John M.
AU - Hecht, Garry
AU - McPhillips, Gillian
AU - Thompson, Alastair M.
N1 - Copyright 2012 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2012/2
Y1 - 2012/2
N2 - Background: Comorbidity and emergency intervention are established risk factors for postoperative mortality. This study sought to identify adverse events associated with death within 48 h of general surgical procedures.Methods: All general surgical patients who died within 48 h of operative intervention from 2002-2006 in Scotland underwent retrospective peer review using established Scottish Audit of Surgical Mortality (SASM) methodologies (www.SASM.org).Results: During the 5 years, 1299 patients died within 48 h of surgery, 1134 (87.3%) admitted as an emergency, with a mean age of 71 years; 898 patients (69.1%) were ASA grade 3, 4 or 5; 727 (56.0%) patients had cardiovascular, 398 (30.6%) respiratory and 191 (14.7%) renal comorbidity. Over time exploratory laparotomy (443, 34.1%) was carried out less often ( p = 0.004) prior to death due to cardiovascular disease (435, 33.5%), mesenteric ischaemia (264, 20.3%) or multi-organ failure (255, 19.6%). The decision to operate by consultant surgeons rose significantly (p < 0.001). Adverse events were identified in 721 of the 1299 cases; concerns about inappropriate operations (p = 0.018) and poor pre-operative assessment ( p = 0.012) decreased significantly.Conclusions: Patients dying within 48 h of surgery are usually elderly, emergency admissions with significant comorbidities who die of cardiovascular events. Timely, appropriate surgery and high quality pen-operative care delivered by consultant staff may prevent early post-operative mortality. (C) 2011 Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (Scottish charity number SC005317) and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
AB - Background: Comorbidity and emergency intervention are established risk factors for postoperative mortality. This study sought to identify adverse events associated with death within 48 h of general surgical procedures.Methods: All general surgical patients who died within 48 h of operative intervention from 2002-2006 in Scotland underwent retrospective peer review using established Scottish Audit of Surgical Mortality (SASM) methodologies (www.SASM.org).Results: During the 5 years, 1299 patients died within 48 h of surgery, 1134 (87.3%) admitted as an emergency, with a mean age of 71 years; 898 patients (69.1%) were ASA grade 3, 4 or 5; 727 (56.0%) patients had cardiovascular, 398 (30.6%) respiratory and 191 (14.7%) renal comorbidity. Over time exploratory laparotomy (443, 34.1%) was carried out less often ( p = 0.004) prior to death due to cardiovascular disease (435, 33.5%), mesenteric ischaemia (264, 20.3%) or multi-organ failure (255, 19.6%). The decision to operate by consultant surgeons rose significantly (p < 0.001). Adverse events were identified in 721 of the 1299 cases; concerns about inappropriate operations (p = 0.018) and poor pre-operative assessment ( p = 0.012) decreased significantly.Conclusions: Patients dying within 48 h of surgery are usually elderly, emergency admissions with significant comorbidities who die of cardiovascular events. Timely, appropriate surgery and high quality pen-operative care delivered by consultant staff may prevent early post-operative mortality. (C) 2011 Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (Scottish charity number SC005317) and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84855511371&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.surge.2011.01.005
DO - 10.1016/j.surge.2011.01.005
M3 - Article
C2 - 22233549
AN - SCOPUS:84855511371
SN - 1479-666X
VL - 10
SP - 1
EP - 5
JO - Surgeon: Journal of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of Edinburgh and Ireland
JF - Surgeon: Journal of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of Edinburgh and Ireland
IS - 1
ER -