Comparison of major abdominal emergency surgery outcomes across organizational models of emergency surgical care: Analysis of the UK NELA national database.

BACKGROUND: Emergency general surgery (EGS) admissions account for a large proportion of surgical care and represent the majority of surgical patients who suffer in-hospital mortality. Health care systems continue to experience growing demand for emergency services: one way in which this is being increasingly addressed is dedicated subspecialty teams for emergency surgical admissions, most commonly termed "emergency general surgery" in the United Kingdom. This study aims to understand the impact of the emergency general surgery model of care on outcomes from emergency laparotomies. METHODS: Data was obtained from the National Emergency Laparotomy Audit database. Patients were dichotomized into EGS hospital or non-EGS hospital. Emergency general surgery hospital is defined as a hospital where >50% of in-hours emergency laparotomy operating is performed by an emergency general surgeon. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality. Secondary outcomes were intensive therapy unit (ITU) length of stay and duration of hospital stay. A propensity score weighting approach was used to reduce confounding and selection bias. RESULTS: There were 115,509 patients from 175 hospitals included in the final analysis. The EGS hospital care group included 5,789 patients versus 109,720 patients in the non-EGS group. Following propensity score weighting, mean standardized mean difference reduced from 0.055 to <0.001. In-hospital mortality was similar (10.8% vs. 11.1%, p = 0.094), with mean length of stay (16.7 days vs. 16.1 days, p < 0.001) and ITU stay (2.8 days vs. 2.6 days, p < 0.001) persistently longer in patients treated in EGS systems. CONCLUSION: No significant association between the emergency surgery hospital model of care and in-hospital mortality in emergency laparotomy patients was seen. There is a significant association between the emergency surgery hospital model of care and an increased length of ITU stay and overall hospital stay. Further studies are required to examine the impact of changing models of EGS delivery in the United Kingdom. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Prognostic and Epidemiological; Level III.

Prevalence and Sonographic Detection of Gallbladder Polyps in a Western European Population.

BACKGROUND: Gallbladder cancer is rare but associated with significant morbidity and mortality necessitating the early identification of premalignant and malignant lesions to improve overall prognosis. Despite limited evidence regarding the effectiveness of transabdominal ultrasound (US) in the detection of gallbladder polyps, it plays a key role in current European guidelines. The aim of this study was to investigate gallbladder polyp prevalence in a western European population and assess the diagnostic accuracy of transabdominal US. METHODS: Data from patients who underwent cholecystectomy for US detected gallbladder polypoid lesions at four hospitals in Ireland and the United Kingdom between 2010 and 2018 were retrospectively collected. Patient demographics, ultrasonographic, and histopathologic findings were analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 134 patients underwent cholecystectomy for US-detected gallbladder polyps. After histopathologic examination, pseudopolyps were found in 75 (56%) specimens with dysplastic or malignant polyps seen in only six (4.5%) specimens. Mean size for neoplastic polyps was 33 mm. The positive predictive value for US in detecting neoplastic polyps in this study was 4.5%, which is significantly lower than the 10%-15% reported previously. CONCLUSIONS: Although the prevalence of neoplastic polyps in this study is higher than in the previous literature, the distribution of pseudopolyps and true polyps is as expected. With all malignant polyps being >10 mm in diameter, these findings support the current size thresholds stated in European guidelines. The poor diagnostic accuracy of US demonstrated may have led to significant number of patients undergoing unnecessary surgical intervention, further supporting the argument for improved strategies for the investigation of gallbladder polyps.