Mortality and postoperative care after emergency laparotomy

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Emergency laparotomy is a common high-risk surgical procedure, but with few outcome data and few data on postoperative care. We aimed to observe mortality within a mixed general surgical population and to explore the potential impact of postoperative care on mortality. METHOD: A prospective observational study of 124 patients undergoing emergency laparotomy. For all patients, overall mortality and 30-day survival were observed; the predicted death rate (PDR) using the P-POSSUM (Portsmouth predictor - Physiological and Operative Severity Score for the enUmeration of Mortality and Morbidity) score and the standardised mortality ratio (SMR) were calculated. RESULTS: Twenty-four patients died (19.4%); 21 in the first 30 days (16.9%). Twenty-six patients were over 80 years; 10 died (38%). PDR for all patients was 27.4%. The overall SMR was 0.71. Eighty-seven patients (70.2%) followed a postanaesthesia care unit (PACU)-ward pathway (observed mortality 13.6%; mean PDR 15.4%; SMR 0.82). Thirty (24.2%) patients followed an ICU-high dependency unit (HDU)-ward pathway (observed mortality 40.0%; mean PDR 57.2%; SMR 0.69). Six patients (4.8%) followed a PACU-HDU-ward pathway (observed mortality 0%, mean PDR 41.8%, SMR 0.0). CONCLUSION: Mortality after emergency laparotomy was high and very high in patients more than 80 years of age. The SMR was higher in the PACU-ward pathway compared to the ICU-HDU-ward pathway, suggesting room for improvement in the postoperative period.