Vester-Andersen M, et al. - Researchers performed this population-based cohort study to assess the link between epidural analgesia and mortality in emergency abdominal surgery, by using prospectively gathered data. Excluding appendectomies, cases with emergency abdominal laparotomy or laparoscopy between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2010 at 13 Danish hospitals were analyzed. They assessed 90-day mortality as the primary outcome and 30-day mortality and serious adverse events as secondary outcomes. There were 4,920 patients in total. Among these, the death of 1134 (23.0%) was reported within 90 days. Perioperative use of epidural analgesia for treatment was reported in 27.9% of the patients. This rose to 34.0% in patients undergoing major laparotomy. The adjusted analysis revealed a reduced risk of mortality in relation to the use of epidural analgesia perioperatively among adult patients undergoing emergency abdominal surgery.