Effect of time to operation on outcomes in adults who underwent emergency general surgery procedure

Abstract Background Patients who undergo an emergency procedure have an increase in postoperative morbidity and mortality. Emergency procedures constitute 14.2% of all general surgery procedures and account for 53.5% of deaths. Among this population, time to surgery from arrival to the emergency department (ED) has not been evaluated as an independent risk factor for morbidity and mortality. Material and methods Patients who underwent an emergency general surgery procedure from 2013 to 2015 were identified using a local American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Project (ACS-NSQIP) database. Outcomes of interest included 30-d mortality, all morbidity, and severe morbidity. Multivariate analyses were conducted using a logistic regression model using clinically relevant covariates to determine predictors of the outcome measures. Results A total of 974 patients were included in the final analysis. The prolonged median time from ED presentation to OR was predictive of all morbidity (14.3 h versus 13.3 h, P  = 0.009) and severe morbidity (13.3 h versus 14.4 h, P  = 0.063) on univariate analysis. Time from ED presentation to OR was not predictive of mortality (13.5 h versus 13.6 h, P  = 0.474). Multivariate analysis demonstrated an adjusted increased odd of morbidity of 2.3 (95% CI: 1.01-5.24) for priority level A cases within the fourth quartile compared to that of the first quartile of time ( P  = 0.048). Conclusions This study corroborates with known data that morbidity and mortality increases in patients who are older, have multiple comorbidities, and higher ASA class. Furthermore, the time from ED arrival to the OR is associated with an overall increase in morbidity.