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Background: The impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on postoperative recovery needs to be understood to inform clinical decision making during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This study reports 30-day mortality and pulmonary complication rates in patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection., Methods: This international, multicentre, cohort study at 235 hospitals in 24 countries included all patients undergoing surgery who had SARS-CoV-2 infection confirmed within 7 days before or 30 days after surgery. The primary outcome measure was 30-day postoperative mortality and was assessed in all enrolled patients. The main secondary outcome measure was pulmonary complications, defined as pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, or unexpected postoperative ventilation., Findings: This analysis includes 1128 patients who had surgery between Jan 1 and March 31, 2020, of whom 835 (74·0%) had emergency surgery and 280 (24·8%) had elective surgery. SARS-CoV-2 infection was confirmed preoperatively in 294 (26·1%) patients. 30-day mortality was 23·8% (268 of 1128). Pulmonary complications occurred in 577 (51·2%) of 1128 patients; 30-day mortality in these patients was 38·0% (219 of 577), accounting for 81·7% (219 of 268) of all deaths. In adjusted analyses, 30-day mortality was associated with male sex (odds ratio 1·75 [95% CI 1·28-2·40], p<0·0001), age 70 years or older versus younger than 70 years (2·30 [1·65-3·22], p<0·0001), American Society of Anesthesiologists grades 3-5 versus grades 1-2 (2·35 [1·57-3·53], p<0·0001), malignant versus benign or obstetric diagnosis (1·55 [1·01-2·39], p=0·046), emergency versus elective surgery (1·67 [1·06-2·63], p=0·026), and major versus minor surgery (1·52 [1·01-2·31], p=0·047)., Interpretation: Postoperative pulmonary complications occur in half of patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection and are associated with high mortality. Thresholds for surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic should be higher than during normal practice, particularly in men aged 70 years and older. Consideration should be given for postponing non-urgent procedures and promoting non-operative treatment to delay or avoid the need for surgery., Funding: National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland, Bowel and Cancer Research, Bowel Disease Research Foundation, Association of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeons, British Association of Surgical Oncology, British Gynaecological Cancer Society, European Society of Coloproctology, NIHR Academy, Sarcoma UK, Vascular Society for Great Britain and Ireland, and Yorkshire Cancer Research., (Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Background: Clinical outcomes after major surgery are poorly described at the national level. Evidence of heterogeneity between hospitals and health-care systems suggests potential to improve care for patients but this potential remains unconfirmed. The European Surgical Outcomes Study was an international study designed to assess outcomes after non-cardiac surgery in Europe., Methods: We did this 7 day cohort study between April 4 and April 11, 2011. We collected data describing consecutive patients aged 16 years and older undergoing inpatient non-cardiac surgery in 498 hospitals across 28 European nations. Patients were followed up for a maximum of 60 days. The primary endpoint was in-hospital mortality. Secondary outcome measures were duration of hospital stay and admission to critical care. We used χ(2) and Fisher's exact tests to compare categorical variables and the t test or the Mann-Whitney U test to compare continuous variables. Significance was set at p<0·05. We constructed multilevel logistic regression models to adjust for the differences in mortality rates between countries., Findings: We included 46,539 patients, of whom 1855 (4%) died before hospital discharge. 3599 (8%) patients were admitted to critical care after surgery with a median length of stay of 1·2 days (IQR 0·9-3·6). 1358 (73%) patients who died were not admitted to critical care at any stage after surgery. Crude mortality rates varied widely between countries (from 1·2% [95% CI 0·0-3·0] for Iceland to 21·5% [16·9-26·2] for Latvia). After adjustment for confounding variables, important differences remained between countries when compared with the UK, the country with the largest dataset (OR range from 0·44 [95% CI 0·19-1·05; p=0·06] for Finland to 6·92 [2·37-20·27; p=0·0004] for Poland)., Interpretation: The mortality rate for patients undergoing inpatient non-cardiac surgery was higher than anticipated. Variations in mortality between countries suggest the need for national and international strategies to improve care for this group of patients., Funding: European Society of Intensive Care Medicine, European Society of Anaesthesiology., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: The magnitude of risk of death related to surgery and anaesthesia is not well understood. We aimed to assess whether the risk of perioperative and anaesthetic-related mortality has decreased over the past five decades and whether rates of decline have been comparable in developed and developing countries., Methods: We did a systematic review to identify all studies published up to February, 2011, in any language, with a sample size of over 3000 that reported perioperative mortality across a mixed surgical population who had undergone general anaesthesia. Using standard forms, two authors independently identified studies for inclusion and extracted information on rates of anaesthetic-related mortality, perioperative mortality, cardiac arrest, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status, geographic location, human development index (HDI), and year. The primary outcome was anaesthetic sole mortality. Secondary outcomes were anaesthetic contributory mortality, total perioperative mortality, and cardiac arrest. Meta-regression was done to ascertain weighted event rates for the outcomes., Findings: 87 studies met the inclusion criteria, within which there were more than 21·4 million anaesthetic administrations given to patients undergoing general anaesthesia for surgery. Mortality solely attributable to anaesthesia declined over time, from 357 per million (95% CI 324-394) before the 1970s to 52 per million (42-64) in the 1970s-80s, and 34 per million (29-39) in the 1990s-2000s (p<0·00001). Total perioperative mortality decreased over time, from 10,603 per million (95% CI 10,423-10,784) before the 1970s, to 4533 per million (4405-4664) in the 1970s-80s, and 1176 per million (1148-1205) in the 1990s-2000s (p<0·0001). Meta-regression showed a significant relation between risk of perioperative and anaesthetic-related mortality and HDI (all p<0·00001). Baseline risk status of patients who presented for surgery as shown by the ASA score increased over the decades (p<0·0001)., Interpretation: Despite increasing patient baseline risk, perioperative mortality has declined significantly over the past 50 years, with the greatest decline in developed countries. Global priority should be given to reducing total perioperative and anaesthetic-related mortality by evidence-based best practice in developing countries., Funding: University of Western Ontario., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Public health surveillance relies on standardised metrics to evaluate disease burden and health system performance. Such metrics have not been developed for surgical services despite increasing volume, substantial cost, and high rates of death and disability associated with surgery. The Safe Surgery Saves Lives initiative of WHO's Patient Safety Programme has developed standardised public health metrics for surgical care that are applicable worldwide. We assembled an international panel of experts to develop and define metrics for measuring the magnitude and effect of surgical care in a population, while taking into account economic feasibility and practicability. This panel recommended six measures for assessing surgical services at a national level: number of operating rooms, number of operations, number of accredited surgeons, number of accredited anaesthesia professionals, day-of-surgery death ratio, and postoperative in-hospital death ratio. We assessed the feasibility of gathering such statistics at eight diverse hospitals in eight countries and incorporated them into the WHO Guidelines for Safe Surgery, in which methods for data collection, analysis, and reporting are outlined.

From 1965 to 1979, 59 patients with the Marfan syndrome and cardiovascular complications underwent aortic root and aortic valve surgery. The hospital mortality was 12% (6.5% over the past 5 years). At follow-up an average of 5.1 years later, 2 patients had postoperative heart block, and late complications required reoperation in 4. There was 8 late deaths (overall mortality 25%). Survival at 6 years was 77% and improvement was noted in the functional class of 32 (74%) of the 43 survivors. 3 patients with abnormal preoperative ventricular function have continued in cardiac failure; 3 have moderate mitral regurgitation and 2 have aortic regurgitation. Aneurysms of the abdominal aorta and pulmonary artery have developed in 2 patients. Initially patients underwent surgery when their condition deteriorated despite medical treatment. Echocardiographic assessment of the aortic root has improved diagnosis and management; a large, progressively dilating aorta and evidence of ventricular dilatation were indications for surgery in 11 symptom-free patients. Although patients with Marfan syndrome are prone to other cardiovascular manifestation which affect survival, elective prophylactic surgery to the ascending aorta can be done with a low mortality and expectation of improved lifespan.

In a case-control study of 125 surgical patients who declined blood transfusions for religious reasons operative mortality was inversely related to the preoperative haemoglobin level, rising from 7.1% for patients with levels above 10 g/dl to 61.5% for those with levels below 6 g/dl. Mortality rates were also related to blood loss during surgery, rising from 8% for patients who lost less than 500 ml to 42.9% for those who lost more than 2000 ml. Both preoperative haemoglobin level and operative blood loss should be considered in assessing the need for preoperative transfusion. In our study no patient with a haemoglobin level above 8 g/dl and operative blood loss below 500 ml died.