EGS SO10 - Restructuring of emergency surgical service in DGH leads to significant reduction in time to cholecystectomy for gallstone pancreatitis in line with international guidance

Abstract Background The International Association of Pancreatology guidelines suggest that patients with mild biliary pancreatitis undergo cholecystectomy during their initial hospital admission. A single-center retrospective study was conducted to examine adherence to this guideline following a significant overhaul of emergency surgical services. Our team, with support from the surgical ambulatory emergency care network, revolutionized care through an Emergency Surgery Unit (EmSU) system. This included surgical assessments with ambulation, coordinated radiology appointments, semi-emergency theatre lists twice a week in addition to NCEPOD theatre sessions, and an emergency roster split by patient gender, ensuring a balanced caseload for the surgeons on duty each week. Method A retrospective study of patients with mild biliary pancreatitis for three years before (n = 107) and after (n=108) the EmSU system. Cholecystectomy on index admission was recorded, as was overall time to surgery (days). Data was analysed using GraphPad Prism Version 9.5.1. Data is expressed as Mean ± SEM. Percentages underwent Arcsine transformation prior to inferential analysis. Groups of data were analysed using Students T-Tests. Results The percentage of patients operated on index admission increased 13.1-fold (4.8% to 62.9%; P < 0.01). Days to surgery saw a 10.1-fold reduction (332.5 ± 41.1 to 32.9 ± 6.3 days; P < 0.0001). Conclusion The adoption of our EmSU system has drastically improved care for patients with gallstone pancreatitis, bringing it much closer to best practice guidance. Further improvement is likely with increased buy-in from all members of staff.