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Author Spotlight: A Non-Intubated Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery with Multimodal Analgesia and Sevoflurane Inhalation Anesthesia
Published on: May 26, 2023
In-house intensivist presence does not affect mortality in select emergency general surgery patients
Amy P Rushing1, Scott A Strassels, Kevin B Ricci
1From the Department of Surgery-Trauma (A.P.R.), University Hospitals, Cleveland; Department of Surgery (S.A.S., A.Z.P., A.D., H.E.B., V.K.H.), Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center; Department of Surgery (K.B.R.), Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore, MD; Department of Surgery (W.M.O.), University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL; Consulting Studio (H.P.S.), NBBJ Design LLC, Columbus, OH; Department of Trauma Surgery (H.P.S.), Kettering Medical Center, Kettering, OH; Center for Surgical Health Assessment, Research and Policy (S.A.S., K.B.R., A.Z.P., A.D., H.E.B., V.K.H., H.P.S.), Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; Department of Dermatology (V.T.D.), University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester MA; Department of Surgery (A.M.I.), University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin; and Ohio State University College of Medicine (W.M.O.), Columbus, Ohio.
Background:
This study aimed to assess the relationship between availability of round-the-clock (RTC) in-house intensivists and patient outcomes in people who underwent surgery for a life-threatening emergency general surgery (LT-EGS) disease such as necrotizing soft-tissue infection, ischemic enteritis, perforated viscus, and toxic colitis.
Methods:
Data on hospital-level critical care structures and processes from a 2015 survey of 2,811 US hospitals were linked to patient-level data from 17 State Inpatient Databases. Patients who were admitted with a primary diagnosis code for an LT-EGS disease of interest and underwent surgery on date of admission were included in analyses.
Results:
We identified 3,620 unique LT-EGS admissions at 368 hospitals. At 66% (n = 243) of hospitals, 83.5% (n = 3,021) of patients were treated at hospitals with RTC intensivist-led care. These facilities were more likely to have in-house respiratory therapists and protocols to ensure availability of blood products or adherence to Surviving Sepsis Guidelines. When accounting for other key factors including overnight surgeon availability, perioperative staffing, and annual emergency general surgery case volume, not having a protocol to ensure adherence to Surviving Sepsis Guidelines (adjusted odds ratio, 2.10; 95% confidence interval, 1.12-3.94) was associated with increased odds of mortality.
Conclusion:
Our results suggest that focused treatment of sepsis along with surgical source control, rather than RTC intensivist presence, is key feature of optimizing EGS patient outcomes.
Level Of Evidence:
Therapeutic, level III.
