Opportunities to improve emergency surgery outcomes exist through guided better practice and reduced variability. Few attempts have been made to define optimal care in emergency surgery, and few ...clinically derived key performance indicators (KPIs) have been published. A summit was therefore convened to look at resources for optimal care of emergency surgery. The aim of the Donegal Summit was to set a platform in place to develop guidelines and KPIs in emergency surgery.
The project had multidisciplinary global involvement in producing consensus statements regarding emergency surgery care in key areas, and to assess feasibility of producing KPIs that could be used to monitor process and outcome of care in the future.
Forty-four key opinion leaders in emergency surgery, across 7 disciplines from 17 countries, composed evidence-based position papers on 14 key areas of emergency surgery and 112 KPIs in 20 acute conditions or emergency systems.
The summit was successful in achieving position papers and KPIs in emergency surgery. While position papers were limited by non-graded evidence and non-validated KPIs, the process set a foundation for the future advancement of emergency surgery.
Background and Aims:
Implementation of a clinical risk score into diagnostics of acute appendicitis may provide accurate diagnosis with selective use of imaging studies. The aim of this study was to ...prospectively validate recently described diagnostic scoring system, Adult Appendicitis Score, and evaluate its effects on negative appendectomy rate.
Material and Methods:
Adult Appendicitis Score stratifies patients into three groups: high, intermediate, and low risk of appendicitis. The score was implemented in diagnostics of adult patients suspected of acute appendicitis in two university hospitals. We analyzed the effects of Adult Appendicitis Score on diagnostic accuracy, imaging studies, and treatment. The study population was compared with a reference population of 829 patients suspected of acute appendicitis originally enrolled for the study of construction of the Adult Appendicitis Score.
Results:
This study enrolled 908 patients of whom 432 (48%) had appendicitis. The score stratified 49% of all appendicitis patients into high-risk group with specificity of 93.3%. In the low-risk group, prevalence of appendicitis was 7%. The histologically confirmed negative appendectomy rate decreased from 18.2% to 8.7%, p<0.001, compared to the original dataset.
Conclusion:
Adult Appendicitis Score is a reliable tool for stratification of patients into selective imaging, which results in low negative appendectomy rate.
Background and Aims:
Blunt abdominal trauma can lead to substantial organ injury and hemorrhage necessitating open abdominal surgery. Currently, the trend in surgeon training is shifting away from ...general surgery and the surgical treatment of blunt abdominal trauma patients is often done by sub-specialized surgeons. The aim of this study was to identify what emergency procedures are needed after blunt abdominal trauma and whether they can be performed with the skill set of a general surgeon.
Materials and Methods:
The records of blunt abdominal trauma patients requiring emergency laparotomy (n = 100) over the period 2006–2016 (Helsinki University Hospital Trauma Registry) were reviewed. The organ injuries and the complexity of the procedures were evaluated.
Results:
A total of 89 patients (no need for complex skills, NCS) were treated with the skill set of general surgeons while 11 patients required complex skills. Complex skills patients were more severely injured (New Injury Severity Score 56.4 vs 35.9, p < 0.001) and had a lower systolic blood pressure (mean: 89 vs 112, p = 0.044) and higher mean shock index (heart rate/systolic blood pressure: 1.43 vs 0.95, p = 0.012) on admission compared with NCS patients. The top three NCS procedures were splenectomy (n = 33), bowel repair (n = 31), and urinary bladder repair (n = 16). In patients requiring a complex procedure (CS), the bleeding site was the liver (n = 7) or a major blood vessel (n = 4).
Conclusion:
The majority of patients requiring emergency laparotomy can be managed with the skills of a general surgeon. Non-responder blunt abdominal trauma patients with positive ultrasound are highly likely to require complex skills. The future training of surgeons should concentrate on NCS procedures while at the same time recognizing those injuries requiring complex skills.
Complex abdominal wall defects refer to situations where simple ventral hernia repair is not feasible because the defect is very large, there is a concomitant infection or failed previous repair ...attempt, or if there is not enough original skin to cover the repair. Usually a complex abdominal wall repair is preceded by a period of temporary abdominal closure where the short-term aims include closure of the catabolic drain, protection of the viscera and preventing fistula formation, preventing bowel adherence to the abdominal wall, and enabling future fascial and skin closure. Currently the best way to achieve these goals is the vacuum- and mesh-mediated fascial traction method achieving close to 90% fascial closure rates. The long-term aims of an abdominal closure following a planned hernia strategy include intact skin cover, fascial closure at midline (if possible), good functional outcome with innervated abdominal musculature, no pain and good cosmetic result. The main methods of abdominal wall reconstruction include the use of prosthetic (mesh) or autologous material (tissue flaps). In patients with original skin cover over the fascial defect (simple ventral hernia), the most commonly used method is hernia repair with an artificial mesh. For more complex defects, our first choice of reconstruction is the component separation technique, sometimes combined with a mesh. In contaminated fields where component separation alone is not feasible, a combination with a biological mesh can be used. In large defects with grafted skin, a free TFL flap is the best option, sometimes reinforced with a mesh and enhanced with components separation.
Management of blunt pancreatic trauma: what’s new? Potoka, D. A.; Gaines, B. A.; Leppäniemi, A. ...
European journal of trauma and emergency surgery (Munich : 2007),
06/2015, Letnik:
41, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Pancreatic injuries are relatively uncommon but present a major challenge to the surgeon in terms of both diagnosis and management. Pancreatic injuries are associated with significant mortality, ...primarily due to associated injuries, and pancreas-specific morbidity, especially in cases of delayed diagnosis. Early diagnosis of pancreatic trauma is a key for optimal management, but remains a challenge even with more advanced imaging modalities. For both penetrating and blunt pancreatic injuries, the presence of main pancreatic ductal injury is the major determinant of morbidity and the major factor guiding management decisions. For main pancreatic ductal injury, surgery remains the preferred approach with distal pancreatectomy for most injuries and more conservative surgical management for proximal ductal injuries involving the head of the pancreas. More recently, nonoperative management has been utilized, especially in the pediatric population, with the potential for increased rates of pseudocyst and pancreatic fistulae and the potential for the need for further intervention and increased hospital stay. This review presents recent data focusing on the diagnosis, management, and outcomes of blunt pancreatic injury.
Background and aims:
The goal after open abdomen treatment is to reach primary fascial closure. Modern negative pressure wound therapy systems are sometimes inefficient for this purpose. This ...retrospective chart analysis describes the use of the ‘components separation’ method in facilitating primary fascial closure after open abdomen.
Material and methods:
A total of 16 consecutive critically ill surgical patients treated with components separation during open abdomen management were analyzed. No patients were excluded.
Results:
Primary fascial closure was achieved in 75% (12/16). Components separation was performed during ongoing open abdomen treatment in 7 patients and at the time of delayed primary fascial closure in 9 patients. Of the former, 3/7 (43%) patients reached primary fascial closure, whereas all 9 patients in the latter group had successful fascial closure without major complications (p = 0.019).
Conclusion:
Components separation is a useful method in contributing to successful primary fascial closure in patients treated for open abdomen. Best results were obtained when components separation was performed simultaneously with primary fascial closure at the end of the open abdomen treatment.
Significant visceral edema associated with massive fluid resuscitation, paralytic ileus and formation of pancreatic ascites in patients with severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) can lead to abdominal ...compartment syndrome (ACS) that can contribute to the early development of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS), especially in the early stages of the disease. The prevalence of intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH) in SAP is about 40% and a manifest ACS occurs in about 10% of the patients warranting close monitoring of intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) in all patients with the severe form of the disease. Although nonsurgical management utilizing percutaneous drainage of ascites or continuous hemodiafiltration may decrease IAP, most patients require decompressive laparostomy and temporary abdominal closure. The primary aim in managing the ensuing open abdomen is delayed fascial closure during initial hospitalization. On many occasions a planned hernia approach, either with early skin grafting over the exposed bowel or managing the ASC primarily with a subcutaneous linea alba fasciotomy, is the only available option. The development of ACS in patients with SAP seems to be associated with increased mortality.
Although laparoscopic adhesiolysis for adhesive small bowel obstruction is being done more frequently, it is not widely accepted due to the lack of supporting evidence of its superiority over an open ...approach and concerns regarding its benefits. We aimed to investigate whether laparoscopic adhesiolysis was a superior treatment for adhesive small bowel obstruction compared with an open approach in terms of length of postoperative hospital stay and morbidity.
In this international, multicentre, parallel, open-label trial, we randomly assigned patients (1:1) aged 18-95 years who had adhesive small bowel obstruction that had not resolved with conservative management to have either open or laparoscopic adhesiolysis. The study was done in five academic university hospitals and three community (central) hospitals in two countries (Finland n=3 academic university hospitals; n=3 community hospitals and Italy n=2 academic university hospitals). We included only patients with high likelihood of a single adhesive band in the trial; additionally, patients who had an anaesthesiological contraindication, were pregnant, living in institutionalised care, or who had a hospital stay of more than 1 week before the surgical consultation were excluded from the trial. The randomisation sequence was generated using block randomisation, with randomly varied block sizes and stratified according to centre. The primary outcome was postoperative length of hospital stay assessed at time of discharge in the modified intention-to-treat population.
Between July 18, 2013, and April 9, 2018, 566 patients were assessed for eligibility, of whom 104 patients were randomly assigned to the open surgery group (n=51) or to the laparoscopy group (n=53). Of these patients, 100 were included in the modified intention-to-treat analyses (49 in the open surgery group; 51 in the laparoscopy group). The postoperative length of hospital stay for open surgery group was on average 1·3 days longer than that in the laparoscopy group (geometric mean 5·5 days range 2-19 vs 4·2 days range 1 -20; ratio of geometric means 1·31 95% CI 1·06-1·61; p=0·013). 21 (43%) patients in the open surgery group and 16 (31%) patients in the laparoscopy group had postoperative complications (Clavien-Dindo any grade) within 30 days (odds ratio 0·61 95% CI 0·27-1·38; p=0·23). One patient died in each group within 30 days.
Laparoscopic adhesiolysis provides quicker recovery in selected patients with adhesive small bowel obstruction than open adhesiolysis.
Vatsatautien Tutkimussäätiö Foundation, Mary and Georg Ehrnrooth's Foundation, Martti I Turunen Foundation, and governmental (Finland) competitive research funds (EVO/VTR/TYH).
PDF
