Emergency general surgery: The prevalence of non-operative consultations and importance of a registry

Abstract

Introduction

An emergency general surgery (EGS) service is a crucial component of care in a hospital. Current reviews of EGS focus on procedural-based or diagnosis-driven reviews of administrative data. However, patients evaluated by an EGS service may or may not undergo surgery. Therefore, we sought to determine the feasibility of maintaining an EGS registry to include those who do and do not undergo surgery and determine the contribution of nonoperative care to the service.

Methods

Demographic and clinical data for operative and nonoperative general surgery consult patients extracted from the local medical record were entered into a registry over 12 months from 2018 to 2019. We used descriptive statistics to demonstrate differences in demographics and clinical presentation between operative and nonoperative groups.

Results

1065 EGS patients were captured into the registry, only 40 % of whom required an operation. Insurance status and race/ethnicity were different between operative and nonoperative groups. Reasons for consultation varied broadly with the largest group (20 %) being for hepatopancreaticobiliary disease.

Discussion

Providing insight into the important contribution of nonoperative care on EGS burden, we present data from an institutional EGS registry. EGS registries can provide direction for future studies to guide optimal management of EGS patients, especially in resource-limited settings.

Conclusion

Maintaining registries poses challenges but given its importance and the need to determine the contribution of patients who do not undergo procedures to the service load, resources are necessary to ensure they continue.