Szakmany T et al. – This study described patient outcomes following elective upper gastrointestinal surgery at a global level. The authors concluded that complications and death are common following upper gastrointestinal surgery and greater risk was observed in patients undergoing major surgery for cancer.

Methods

• Prospective analysis of data collected from 474 hospitals (27 countries), in which patients (N = 2139) undergoing elective upper gastrointestinal surgery were recruited.

Results

• Of the total number of recruited patients, 23.2% developed one or more postoperative complications, with 1.4% deaths.
• A longer median hospital stay was reported by patients with complications 11 (6–18) days versus 5 (2–10) days.
• Infectious complications (most frequent) were reported by 17.2% of the patients and 15.3% of the patients were admitted to critical care post–operatively, of these 49.1% developed a complication with 4.3% deaths.
• Age, American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status III nd IV, surgery for cancer, open procedure, intermediate surgery ,and major surgery were shown to be independent risk factors for postoperative complications.
• The rate of complications experienced by patients undergoing major surgery for upper gastrointestinal cancer was twice the rate of complications experienced by those undergoing other procedures (38.8% vs. 17.6%).