Elective Surgical Outcomes Of Patients In Christchurch, New Zealand

AIM: Most studies assessing mortality after surgery have been undertaken in major public hospitals or are procedure specific. The aim of this study was to determine mortality after elective surgery at a total community level with inclusion of all patients undergoing elective surgery.METHOD: This was a prospective study of all patients that underwent elective surgery in Christchurch, New Zealand, within a calendar month. For each patient, we collected demographic data, American Society of Anaesthesiologists physical status classification (ASA), type of anaesthetic and surgical specialty. The primary outcome was 30-day mortality and the secondary outcome was 90-day mortality.RESULTS: Four thousand seven hundred and fifteen patients were included in this study. Two thousand five hundred and seventy-eight (55%) were female and the median age was 56 years (range 0-99 years). Three thousand one hundred and forty-two (67%) patients had a general anaesthetic. By day 30, 11 (0.2%) patients had died and by day 90, 27 (0.6%) patients had died. Of the 27 deaths within 90 days after surgery, one was possibly anaesthesia-related (0.02%), while the majority were due to progression of disease (18).CONCLUSION: This study shows a lower mortality than what has previously been reported for elective surgical procedures when the denominator is the total community number of operations.