Inpatient Postoperative Mortality: Comparing Patients Hospitalized Preoperatively to Those Having Elective Surgery

Results of previous studies of all-cause perioperative mortality should not be applied to patients having elective major surgery because most deaths (approximately 95%) and most cases (70%) are in patients having nonelective major surgery ( i.e. , already admitted to the hospital or undergoing trauma-related surgery). From a public health perspective, interventions to reduce postoperative mortality should be primarily focused on patients who are inpatients before their first major surgical procedure.