Association between emergency department length of stay and adverse perioperative outcomes in emergency surgery: a cohort study in two Colombian University hospitals.

BACKGROUND: In low- and middle-income countries emergency surgery represents a higher proportion of the total number of surgeries and is associated with greater morbidity/mortality. Study aims were to determine if emergency department length of stay (ED-LOS) was associated with adverse perioperative outcomes and if such association varied across patient's risk categories. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted of adult patients who underwent orthopedic or abdominal emergency surgery at two Colombian University hospitals. The population comprised a mix of a representative sample of eligible cases, with unselected patients (2/3), enriched with a high-risk subset (1/3). ED-LOS was defined as the interval between emergency department arrival and surgery start time. Our primary outcome was an adverse perioperative outcome during hospitalization, which was a composite of in-hospital mortality or severe complications such as major cardiovascular adverse events, infection, renal failure and bleeding. RESULTS: Among 1487 patients analyzed, there were 519 adverse perioperative outcomes including 150 deaths. In the unselected sample (n = 998) 17.9% of patients presented an adverse perioperative outcome with a mortality of 4.9%. The median ED-LOS was 24.6 (IQR 12.5-53.2) hours. ED-LOS was associated with age, comorbidities and known risk factors for 30-day mortality. Patients developing an adverse perioperative outcome started surgery 27.1 h later than their counterparts. Prolonged ED-LOS increased the risk of an adverse perioperative outcome in patients without risk factors (covariate-adjusted OR = 2.52), while having 1-2 or 3+ risk factors was negatively associated (OR = 0.87 and 0.72, respectively, p < 0.001 for the interaction). CONCLUSION: Prolonged ED-LOS is associated with increased adverse perioperative outcome for patients without risk factors for mortality, but seems protective and medically justified for more complex cases.

Digital Photography: a Tool for Nursing on the Assessment of Pressure Lesions.

OBJECTIVES: This work sought to assess the inter-observer agreement among expert nurses by using digital photographs and between these experts and the nursing registries in the electronic clinical record in the identification and degree of PL. METHODS: This was an observational study, including 225 photographic records (184 patients, 97 with pressure lesion and 128 registries without lesion) randomly selected from the total of photographs registered in the PENFUP clinical trial (without lesion). Three expert evaluators assessed said photographs in masked manner. The notes from nursing of patients included related with the description of PL were evaluated. The Kappa index was calculated along with the composite agreement ratio for each evaluation. RESULTS: Good agreement was observed among expert evaluators of photographic records on the presence of PL and between good-moderate for the degree of PL (I-II). Likewise, upon evaluating the agreement between the nursing registries of PL and the photographic assessment of the three expert evaluators of the same areas, good agreement was observed to determine the presence of PL and moderate agreement for the degrees of PL. CONCLUSIONS: Photographic records are a tool that permits recognizing the types of wounds, as well as the visualization of the different layers of skin injured. The study highlights the importance of assessment and validation by experts, given that it permits identifying existing problems that can lead to the underestimation or overestimation of PL when conducted by a single caregiver.