An audit of hospital mortality: general compared with vascular surgery

We have prospectively analysed hospital mortality for general and vascular surgical patients on a single surgical unit. During 1990, 1277 patients were admitted (836 general, 368 vascular, 73 varicose veins). The mortality for the general surgical patients was 1.3 per cent, vascular 6.2 per cent and no varicose vein patients died. All of the general surgical deaths and 70 per cent of the vascular deaths were in-patients admitted as an emergency. The major causes of death in general surgical patients were peritonitis and gastrointestinal bleeding, whilst those of the vascular patients were ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms and acutely ischaemic legs. The implications of these findings are discussed.