The emergency surgery score (ESS) and outcomes in elderly patients undergoing emergency laparotomy: A post-hoc analysis of an EAST multicenter study

Introduction: We sought to evaluate whether the Emergency Surgery Score (ESS) can accurately predict outcomes in elderly patients undergoing emergent laparotomy (EL). Methods: This is a post-hoc analysis of an EAST multicenter study. Between April 2018 and June 2019, all adult patients undergoing EL in 19 participating hospitals were prospectively enrolled, and ESS was calculated for each patient. Using the c-statistic, the correlation between ESS and mortality, morbidity, and need for ICU admission was assessed in three patient age cohorts (65-74, 75-84, >= 85 years old). Results: 715 patients were included, of which 52% were 65-74, 34% were 75-84, and 14% were >= 85 years old; 51% were female, and 77% were white. ESS strongly correlated with postoperative mortality (c-statistic:0.81). Mortality gradually increased from 0% to 20%-60% at ESS of 2, 10 and 16 points, respectively. ESS predicted mortality, morbidity, and need for ICU best in patients 65-74 years old (c-statistic:0.81, 0.75, 0.83 respectively), but its performance significantly decreased in patients >= 85 years (c-statistic:0.72, 0.64, 0.67 respectively). Conclusion: ESS is an accurate predictor of outcome in the elderly EL patient 65-85 years old, but its performance decreases for patients >85. Consideration should be given to modify ESS to better predict outcomes in the very elderly patient population. (C) 2020 Published by Elsevier Inc.

Automated summary

The study evaluated the predictive ability of the Emergency Surgery Score (ESS) for outcomes in elderly patients undergoing emergent laparotomy, finding that ESS can accurately predict mortality, morbidity, and need for ICU admission in patients aged 65-85, but its performance decreases in patients over 85 years old.