General surgical emergency admissions

Abstract EN

Background: Surgical emergencies encompass a large proportion of the Global Burden of Surgical Disease, which according to the World Health Organization (WHO), is around 11%.

Therefore, to address these problems, it is first crucial to determine the trends of emergency surgical admission.

Objective: To evaluate the burden of surgical emergencies in our institution and establish the baseline data to improve the management.

Design: A Retrospective Study.

Setting: Salmaniya Medical Complex, Bahrain.

Method: Data regarding emergency surgical admissions in patients above the age of 14 from January 2018 to March 2018 were reviewed from the electronic system (I-Seha).

The data were analyzed to determine the most common surgical emergencies, their management, length of stay and mortality.

Result: Three hundred fifty-six emergency surgical admissions from January 2018 to March 2018 were included in the study.

Two hundred thirty-five (66%) were males.

One hundred eight (30.3%) patients were diseases of the stomach and duodenum, followed by 26 (7.3%) dermatoses, and 22 (6.2%) diseases of the biliary tract.

Sixty-one (17.1%) required admission to critical care with an overall average hospital stay of 5.84 days.

The mortality rate was 0.84%.

Conclusion: Surgical emergency admissions comprise a significant burden on the healthcare system.

This study is a preliminary overview of emergency surgical cases.

Further prospective studies are required to evaluate the magnitude of the problem.