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Cardiopulmonary complication after ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (rAAA) repair is an important cause of mortality. Early tracheostomy promotes patient recovery from respiratory morbidities. A policy of routine immediate tracheostomy was adopted in 1999 at our institution. This study investigates the trend of hospital mortality of rAAA patients over 12 years with particular reference to immediate tracheostomy. Consecutive rAAA patients operated during 1993-2004 were divided into two groups (first group, 1993-1998; second group, 1999-2002). Intra- and postoperative care was the same for all patients except that immediate tracheostomy was performed routinely in the second group and only selectively in the first. Hospital mortality of the two groups was examined. Patient characteristics, biochemical parameters, aneurysm feature, operative details, and clinical outcomes of the two groups (excluding 48 hr perioperative mortalities) were compared to identify prognostic factors of hospital mortality. Sixty-three patients were operated during the study period. The overall hospital mortality for the first and second groups was 62.5% (20/32) and 22.6% (7/31) ( p = 0.001), respectively. Excluding the 48 hr mortalities, 57.1% (12, n = 21) of patients in the first group and 85.7% (24, n = 28) of those in the second group survived to be discharged from hospital ( p = 0.048). The pre-, intra-, and postoperative parameters were comparable between the two groups. Immediate tracheostomy was performed for all patients in the second group and only 52.4% (11) in the first group. Male gender, high creatinine level on presentation, postoperation cardiac morbidity, renal failure, and bowel ischemia were found to be associated with a higher mortality. Immediate tracheostomy is a significant factor associated with improved survival. In conclusion, a significant improvement of rAAA patients’ in-hospital mortality was achieved during the study period. Tracheostomy performed immediately following rAAA repair is associated with better hospital survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PURPOSE: This study examined the accuracy of Portsmouth Physiologic and Operative Severity Score for enUmeration of Mortality and Morbidity system (P-POSSUM) in predicting the mortality of patients who underwent operations for obstructing colorectal cancer. It also is attempted to analyze the actual mortality and the predicted P-POSSUM mortality of different surgical options for obstructing left-sided cancer. METHODS: Data on patients who underwent surgery for obstructing colorectal cancer during 1998 to 2002 were collected. Mortality predicted by P-POSSUM was compared to the actual mortality with the method of linear analysis. The accuracy of using P-POSSUM to predict mortality in this group of patients was assessed by Hosmer and Lemeshow goodness of fit test and Receiver Operator Characteristic curve analysis. The predicted and actual mortality of patients who underwent different surgical options also were analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 160 patients were included in the study and 18 patients died postoperatively. The operative mortality was 11.3 percent. P-POSSUM predicted overall mortality of 15 percent. The observed and predicted mortality was found to have no significant lack of fit (chi-squared = 5.98; degree of freedom = 3; P = 0.11). The area under Receiver Operator Characteristic curve analysis was 0.75. For patients with left-sided tumors, P-POSSUM predicted mortality and actual mortality of patients who had resection without anastomosis were both significantly higher than patients with single-stage resection and primary anastomosis (P = 0.044 and 0.011, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: P-POSSUM system is valid for prediction of overall mortality in patients with operations for obstructing colorectal cancer. Estimation of P-POSSUM predicted mortality during operation and its ability to correlate with choice of procedure is an area that is worth further study in emergency colorectal surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]