Patient selection: emergency surgery
Outcome: post-operative sepsis or septic shock
Prevalence in the study: 2%
Prevalence in the literature: up to 4.5%
Risk factors for sepsis:
(1) ASA status >= 3 (odds ratio 2.6)
(2) total dependence (odds ratio 2.0) or partially dependent (odds ratio 1.6)
(3) male gender (odds ratio 1.3)
where:
• In the abstract and text an ASA status >=2 is mentioned but in Table 3 it is >= 3.
Odds ratio by type of surgery:
(1) biliary (odds ratio 0.4)
(2) colorectal (odds ratio 1.0)
(3) small intestine (odds ratio 1.3)
(4) pancreatic (odds ratio 2.3)
Other factors associated with increased risk:
(1) COPD
(2) metastatic cancer
(3) therapy with corticosteroids
(4) serum creatinine > 1.2 mg/dL
(5) serum albumin < 3 g/dL
