McIlveen EC, et al. - Given that characterization of patients eligible for emergency laparotomy who do not proceed to surgery has not been done well enough compared with those who do proceed to surgery, researchers examined the link of individual variables with survival and two composite scores: P-POSSUM and a general survival model in patients eligible for laparotomy, as defined by National Emergency Laparotomy Audit criteria. This study included 314 patients. Those who underwent laparotomy and those who did not were 214 (68%) and 100 (32%) in total, respectively. The observation period revealed 126/314 (40%) deaths, 52/214 (24%) deaths following laparotomy and 74/100 (74%) deaths without surgery. For both the groups, different patient variables were noted, which when integrated into the general survival model produced background median (IQR [range]) life expectancies of 12 (6–21 [0–49]) and 4 (2–6 [0–36]) years, respectively. The contention that a reasonably accurate prediction of survival beyond 30 postoperative days could be possible was supported in this study. A shorter than expected survival was observed in patients who did not have laparotomy. Prolonged survival might be reported for emergency laparotomy in some patients.