Timely access to the operating room for emergency general surgery (EGS) indications remains a challenge across the globe, largely driven by operating room availability and staffing constraints. The \"timing in acute care surgery\" (TACS) classification was previously published to introduce a new tool to triage the timely and appropriate access of EGS patients to the operating room. However, the clinical and operational effectiveness of the TACS classification has not been investigated in subsequent validation studies. This study aimed to improve the TACS classification and provide further consensus around the appropriate use of the new TACS classification through a standardized Delphi approach with international experts.
This is a validation study of the new TACS by a selected international panel of experts using the Delphi method. The TACS questionnaire was designed as a web-based survey. The consensus agreement level was established to be ≥ 75%. The collective consensus agreement was defined as the sum of the percentage of the highest Likert scale levels (4-5) out of all participants. Surgical emergency diseases and correlated clinical scenarios were defined for each of the proposed classes. Subsequent rounds were carried out until a definitive level of consensus was reached. Frequencies and percentages were calculated to determine the degree of agreement for each surgical disease.
Four polling rounds were carried out. The new TACS classification provides 6 colour-code classes correlated to a precise timing to surgery, defined scenarios and surgical condition. The WHITE colour-code class was introduced to rapidly (within a week) reschedule cancelled or postponed surgical procedures. Haemodynamic stability is the main tool to stratify patients for immediate surgery or not in the presence of sepsis/septic shock. Fifty-one surgical diseases were included in the different colour-code classes of priority.
The new TACS classification is a comprehensive, simple, clear and reproducible triage system which can be used to assess the severity of the patient and the surgical disease, to reduce the time to access to the operating room, and to manage the emergency surgical patients within a \"safe\" timeframe. By including well-defined surgical diseases in the different colour-code classes of priority, validated through a Delphi consensus, the new TACS improves communication among surgeons, between surgeons and anaesthesiologists and decreases conflicts and waste and waiting time in accessing the operating room for emergency surgical patients.

Emergency presentations of hernias can pose significant morbidity. In addition, providing optimal surgical intervention can be challenging due to patient and disease factors with multiple treatment modalities available. Recently there have been several guidelines written to help standardize practices in hernia management. The aim of our study was to review emergency hernia operations at our tertiary level teaching hospital, the method of repair and how this matched to international guidelines.
We performed a retrospective chart review of all the patients who underwent emergency hernia surgery for strangulated/incarcerated hernias in our department over a 3-year period. Adherence to guidelines was assessed looking at appropriateness of mesh utilization, as well as the appropriateness of antibiotic usage.
A total of 184 cases from April 1st 2018 to March 31st 2021 were included. Of these hernias 12% contained necrotic or perforated bowel, 42% contained viable incarcerated bowel, and 45% contained just incarcerated fat. The compliance to the appropriate use of mesh overall was 85%, with a variation by hernia type. The global compliance to appropriate antibiotic therapy was high, at 89.7%. With antibiotic use compliance being very high in clean wounds (95.6%), and dirty wounds (100%). But lower in clean/contaminated or contaminated wounds (36.8%).
Compliance at our hospital was globally good. Areas of decreased compliance seem to be mostly regarding mesh use and antibiotic use in potentially contaminated fields and the concept of risk of bacterial translocation versus actual contamination, as well as in mesh use in smaller umbilical hernias.

BACKGROUND: Patients presenting with acute abdominal pain that occurs after months or years following bariatric surgery may present for assessment and management in the local emergency units. Due to the large variety of surgical bariatric techniques, emergency surgeons have to be aware of the main functional outcomes and long-term surgical complications following the most performed bariatric surgical procedures. The purpose of these evidence-based guidelines is to present a consensus position from members of the WSES in collaboration with IFSO bariatric experienced surgeons, on the management of acute abdomen after bariatric surgery focusing on long-term complications in patients who have undergone laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy and laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass.
METHODS: A working group of experienced general, acute care, and bariatric surgeons was created to carry out a systematic review of the literature following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P) and to answer the PICO questions formulated after the Operative management in bariatric acute abdomen survey. The literature search was limited to late/long-term complications following laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy and laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass.
CONCLUSIONS: The acute abdomen after bariatric surgery is a common cause of admission in emergency departments. Knowledge of the most common late/long-term complications (> 4 weeks after surgical procedure) following sleeve gastrectomy and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and their anatomy leads to a focused management in the emergency setting with good outcomes and decreased morbidity and mortality rates. A close collaboration between emergency surgeons, radiologists, endoscopists, and anesthesiologists is mandatory in the management of this group of patients in the emergency setting.

Despite the current therapeutic options for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, surgery is still frequently required in the emergency setting, although the number of cases performed seems to have decreased in recent years. The World Society of Emergency Surgery decided to debate in a consensus conference of experts, the main pertinent issues around the management of inflammatory bowel disease in the emergent situation, with the need to provide focused guidelines for acute care and emergency surgeons.
A group of experienced surgeons and gastroenterologists were nominated to develop the topics assigned and answer the questions addressed by the Steering Committee of the project. Each expert followed a precise analysis and grading of the studies selected for review. Statements and recommendations were discussed and voted at the Consensus Conference of the 6th World Society of Emergency Surgery held in Nijmegen (The Netherlands) in June 2019.
Complicated inflammatory bowel disease requires a multidisciplinary approach because of the complexity of this patient group and disease spectrum in the emergency setting, with the aim of obtaining safe surgery with good functional outcomes and a decreasing stoma rate where appropriate.

Acute calculous cholecystitis (ACC) is a very common complication of gallstone-related disease. Its currently recommended management changes according to severity of disease and fitness for surgery. The aim of this observational study is to assess the short- and long-term outcomes in all-comers admitted with diagnosis of ACC, treated according to 2013 Tokyo Guidelines (TG13). A retrospective analysis was conducted on a prospectively maintained database of 125 patients with diagnosis of ACC consecutively admitted between January 2017 and September 2019, subdivided in three groups according to TG13: percutaneous cholecystostomy (PC group), cholecystectomy (CH group), and conservative medical treatment (MT group). The primary end point was a composite of morbidity and/or mortality rates; the secondary end points were ACC recurrence, readmission, need for cholecystectomy rates and overall length of hospital stay (LOS). After a median follow-up of 639 days, overall morbidity rate was 20.8% and mortality rate was 6.4%. Death was directly related to AC during the index admission in two out of eight cases. There were no significant differences in primary end point according to the treatment group. Concerning secondary end points, ACC recurrence rate was not significantly different after PC (10.0%) or MT (9.1%); the readmission rates were significantly higher (p < 0.0001) in the MT group (48.5%) and in the PC group (25.0%) than in the CH group (5.8%); need for cholecystectomy rates was significantly higher (p < 0.0001) in the MT group (42.4%) than in the PC group (20.0%); median overall LOS was significantly higher in the PC (16 days) than in the MT (9 days) and than in the CH group (5 days). PC is an effective and safe rescue procedure in high-risk patients with ACC, representing a definitive treatment in 80% of cases of this specific subgroup.

Introduction The recent novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought the world to a standstill. This outbreak not only affected healthcare systems but the resultant economic losses were also enormous. COVID-19 has demanded that the health care systems globally evolve, develop new strategies, identify new models of functioning, and at times, fall back on the old conservative methods of orthopedic care to decrease the risk of disease transmission. Although, the majority of hospitals are refraining from performing elective surgeries, emergent and urgent procedures cannot be delayed. Various strategies have been developed at the institute level to reduce the risk of infection transmission among the theatre team from an unsuspected patient (asymptomatic and presymptomatic) during the perioperative period. Material and methods The present study is a part of an ongoing project which is being conducted in a tertiary level hospital after obtaining research review board approval. All patients admitted either for vertebral fracture or spinal cord compression from February 2020 to May 2020 were included. The present study included 13 patients (nine males and four females) with an average age of 35.4 years The oldest patient was of 63 years which is considered a risk factor for developing severe COVID-19 infection.  Results Eight patients (61.5%) presented with spinal cord injury (SCI) due to vertebral fracture with fall from height (87.5%) as the most common etiology. Among the traumatic SCI patients, six (75%) were managed surgically with posterior decompression and instrumented fusion with pedicle screws while two patients (25%) were managed conservatively. There were four patients (30.8%) of tuberculosis of the spine of whom two (50%) were managed with posterior decompression, debridement, and stabilization with pedicle screws, samples for culture, biopsy, and cartridge-based nucleic acid amplification test (CBNAAT) were collected during the procedure; for the remaining two patients (50%), a trans-pedicular biopsy was performed to confirm the diagnosis for initiation of anti-tubercular therapy. Prolapsed intervertebral disc causing cauda equina syndrome was the reason for emergency surgery in one patient (7.7%). COVID-19 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test was performed in four patients (30.8%), in whom the most common symptom was fever (two patients (50%)). These patients were residents of high prevalence area for COVID-19 infection. Sore throat (25%), fatigue (25%), and low oxygen saturation (25%) were present in one patient which prompted us to get the COVID-19 test. All patients were reported negative for COVID-19. Conclusion The structural organization and the management protocol we describe allowed us to reduce infection risk and ultimately hospital stay, thereby maximizing the already stretched available medical resources. These precautions helped us to reduce transmission and exposure to COVID-19 in health care workers (HCW) and patients in our institute. The aim of this article is that our early experience can be of value to the medical communities that will soon be in a similar situation.

In July 2013, the World Society of Emergency Surgery (WSES) held the first Consensus Conference on emergency repair of abdominal wall hernias in adult patients with the intention of producing evidence-based guidelines to assist surgeons in the management of complicated abdominal wall hernias. Guidelines were updated in 2017 in keeping with varying clinical practice: benefits resulting from the increased use of biological prosthesis in the emergency setting were highlighted, as previously published in the World Journal of Emergency Surgery. This executive summary is intended to consolidate knowledge on the emergency management of complicated hernias by providing the broad readership with a practical and concise version of the original guidelines.
This executive manuscript summarizes the WSES guidelines reporting on the emergency management of complicated abdominal wall hernias; statements are highlighted focusing the readers\' attention on the main concepts presented in the original guidelines.
Emergency repair of complicated abdominal hernias remains one of the most common and challenging surgical emergencies worldwide. WSES aims to provide an essential version of the evidence-based guidelines focusing on the timing of intervention, laparoscopic approach, surgical repair following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) wound classification, antimicrobial prophylaxis and anesthesia in the emergency setting.

Acute diverticulitis (AD) presents a unique diagnostic and therapeutic challenge for general surgeons. This collaborative project between EAES and SAGES aimed to summarize recent evidence and draw statements of recommendation to guide our members on comprehensive AD management.
Systematic reviews of the literature were conducted across six AD topics by an international steering group including experts from both societies. Topics encompassed the epidemiology, diagnosis, management of non-complicated and complicated AD as well as emergency and elective operative AD management. Consensus statements and recommendations were generated, and the quality of the evidence and recommendation strength rated with the GRADE system. Modified Delphi methodology was used to reach consensus among experts prior to surveying the EAES and SAGES membership on the recommendations and likelihood to impact their practice. Results were presented at both EAES and SAGES annual meetings with live re-voting carried out for recommendations with < 70% agreement.
A total of 51 consensus statements and 41 recommendations across all six topics were agreed upon by the experts and submitted for members\' online voting. Based on 1004 complete surveys and over 300 live votes at the SAGES and EAES Diverticulitis Consensus Conference (DCC), consensus was achieved for 97.6% (40/41) of recommendations with 92% (38/41) agreement on the likelihood that these recommendations would change practice if not already applied. Areas of persistent disagreement included the selective use of imaging to guide AD diagnosis, recommendations against antibiotics in non-complicated AD, and routine colonic evaluation after resolution of non-complicated diverticulitis.
This joint EAES and SAGES consensus conference updates clinicians on the current evidence and provides a set of recommendations that can guide clinical AD management practice.

Iatrogenic colonoscopy perforation (ICP) is a severe complication that can occur during both diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Although 45-60% of ICPs are diagnosed by the endoscopist while performing the colonoscopy, many ICPs are not immediately recognized but are instead suspected on the basis of clinical signs and symptoms that occur after the endoscopic procedure. There are three main therapeutic options for ICPs: endoscopic repair, conservative therapy, and surgery. The therapeutic approach must vary based on the setting of the diagnosis (intra- or post-colonoscopy), the type of ICP, the characteristics and general status of the patient, the operator\'s level of experience, and surgical device availability. Although ICPs have been the focus of numerous publications, no guidelines have been created to standardize the management of ICPs. The aim of this article is to present the World Society of Emergency Surgery (WSES) guidelines for the management of ICP, which are intended to be used as a tool to promote global standards of care in case of ICP. These guidelines are not meant to substitute providers\' clinical judgment for individual patients, and they may need to be modified based on the medical team\'s level of experience and the availability of local resources.

Opportunities to improve emergency surgery outcomes exist through guided better practice and reduced variability. Few attempts have been made to define optimal care in emergency surgery, and few clinically derived key performance indicators (KPIs) have been published. A summit was therefore convened to look at resources for optimal care of emergency surgery. The aim of the Donegal Summit was to set a platform in place to develop guidelines and KPIs in emergency surgery.
The project had multidisciplinary global involvement in producing consensus statements regarding emergency surgery care in key areas, and to assess feasibility of producing KPIs that could be used to monitor process and outcome of care in the future.
Forty-four key opinion leaders in emergency surgery, across 7 disciplines from 17 countries, composed evidence-based position papers on 14 key areas of emergency surgery and 112 KPIs in 20 acute conditions or emergency systems.
The summit was successful in achieving position papers and KPIs in emergency surgery. While position papers were limited by non-graded evidence and non-validated KPIs, the process set a foundation for the future advancement of emergency surgery.