34 / 66
32
Figure 16: Frequency of specific postoperative complications by urgency status.
Note: total n=2,074 complications in 7,270 episodes for 5,184 patients who underwent operative treatment
Audit period 1 July 2007 to 30 June 2015.
Panc: pancreatic; post-op: postoperative.
Comments:
•
Emergency cases are more likely to have postoperative complications.
•
The audit pool contains 84.3% (5,210/6,179) cases admitted as emergencies and highlights the greater
complication risk during surgical procedures (see Figure 16).
•
A total of 1,259 ‘other’ complications were identified, including: cardiac failure, intrapulmonary haemorrhage,
intracerebral bleed, postoperative hypoxia, acute or chronic renal failure, paraplegia, liver failure, pneumonia,
perforated viscus, pulmonary embolism, pyelonephritis, respiratory failure, seizures, sepsis, stroke and wound
haematoma.
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
Other
Significant post-op bleeding
Procedure related sepsis
Tissue ischaemia
Anastomotic leak - small bowel
Anastomotic leak - colorectal
Vascular graft occlusion
Endoscopic perforation
Anastomotic leak - gastric
Anastomotic leak - panc/biliary
Anastomotic leak - oesophageal
Cases (n)
Complication type
Emergency Elective
28.6%
Emergency complications
2007-2014
27.1%
Emergency complications
2014-2015