Perioperative mortality rate and its predictors after emergency laparatomy at Debre Markos comprehensive specialized hospital, Northwest Ethiopia: 2023: retrospective follow-up study

Abstract Background Emergency laparatomy is abdominal surgery associated with a high rate of mortality. There are few reports on rates and predictors of postoperative mortality, whereas disease related or time specific studies are limited. Understanding the rate and predictors of mortality in the first 30 days (perioperative period) is important for evidence based decision and counseling of patients. This study aimed to estimate the perioperative mortality rate and its predictors after emergency laparatomy at Debre Markos Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia, 2023. Methods This was a Hospital-based retrospective follow-up study conducted at Debre Markos Comprehensive Specialized Hospital in Ethiopia among patients who had undergone emergency laparatomy between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2022. Sample of 418 emergency laparatomy patients selected with simple random sampling technique were studied. The data were extracted from March 15, 2023 to April 1, 2023 using a data extraction tool, cleaned, and entered into Epi-Data software version 3.1 before being exported to STATA software version 14.1 for analysis. Predictor variables with P value < 0.05 in multivariable Cox regression were reported. Results Data of 386 study participants (92.3% complete charts) were analyzed. The median survival time was 18 days [IQR: (14, 29)]. The overall perioperative mortality rate in the cohort during the 2978 person-days of observations was 25.5 per 1000 person-days of follow-up [95% CI: (20.4, 30.9))]. Preoperative need for vasopressor [AHR: 1.8 (95% CI: (1.11, 2.98))], admission to intensive care unit [AHR: 2.0 (95% CI: (1.23, 3.49))], longer than three days of symptoms [AHR: 2.2 (95% CI: (1.15, 4.02))] and preoperative sepsis [AHR: 1.8 (95% CI: (1.05, 3.17))] were identified statistically significant predictors of perioperative mortality after emergency laparatomy. Conclusions The perioperative mortality rate is high. Preoperative need for vasopressors, admission to intensive care unit, longer than three days of symptoms and preoperative sepsis were predictors of increased perioperative mortality rate.