The role of APACHE-II triaging in optimum management of small bowel perforations

Small bowel perforations with peritonitis pose a serious problem to an emergency surgeon because of the lack of any uniformity of opinion regarding the optimum surgical treatment to be performed. This may be attributed to lack of any common and reliable scoring system. A prospective study to discover the utility of APACHE-II triaging in small bowel perforations was conducted over a period of 14 months on 51 patients with small bowel perforations of various aetiologies. The triaging facilitated definitive surgical treatments based on the predictive value of APACHE-II scoring. The classification of patients into three groups, effectively brought uniformity in the management. A significant reduction in mortality and cost-effective utilization of scarce intensive care unit resources were the dominant outcomes of this study conducted at a busy tertiary centre.