METHODS: All adult patients with clinical suspicion of AMI admitted or transferred to 32 participating hospitals from 06.06.2022 to 05.04.2023 were included. Participants who were subsequently shown not to have AMI or had localized intestinal gangrene due to strangulating bowel obstruction had only baseline and outcome data collected.
RESULTS: AMI occurred in 0.038% of adult admissions in participating acute care hospitals worldwide. From a total of 705 included patients, 418 patients had confirmed AMI. In 69% AMI was the primary reason for admission, while in 31% AMI occurred after having been admitted with another diagnosis. Median time from onset of symptoms to hospital admission in patients admitted due to AMI was 24 h (interquartile range 9-48h) and time from admission to diagnosis was 6h (1-12 h). Occlusive arterial AMI was diagnosed in 231 (55.3%), venous in 73 (17.5%), non-occlusive (NOMI) in 55 (13.2%), other type in 11 (2.6%) and the subtype could not be classified in 48 (11.5%) patients. Surgery was the initial management in 242 (58%) patients, of which 59 (24.4%) underwent revascularization. Endovascular revascularization alone was carried out in 54 (13%), conservative treatment in 76 (18%) and palliative care in 46 (11%) patients. From patients with occlusive arterial AMI, revascularization was undertaken in 104 (45%), with 40 (38%) of them in one site admitting selected patients. Overall in-hospital and 90-day mortality of AMI was 49% and 53.3%, respectively, and among subtypes was lowest for venous AMI (13.7% and 16.4%) and highest for NOMI (72.7% and 74.5%). There was a high variability between participating sites for most variables studied.
CONCLUSIONS: The overall incidence of AMI and AMI subtypes varies worldwide, and case ascertainment is challenging. Pre-hospital delay in presentation was greater than delays after arriving at hospital. Surgery without revascularization was the most common management approach. Nearly half of the patients with AMI died during their index hospitalization. Together, these findings suggest a need for greater awareness of AMI, and better guidance in diagnosis and management.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT05218863 (registered 19.01.2022).
METHODS: This was a post hoc study of an international prospective multicenter study where data on patients with suspected AMI were collected. Independent factors associated with arterial occlusive AMI were evaluated in a multivariable logistic regression analysis.
RESULTS: The number of patients with arterial occlusive AMI was 231, consisting of thrombotic (n = 104), embolic (n = 61), and indeterminate (n = 66) occlusions. The non-AMI group included 287 patients, of whom 128 had strangulated bowel obstruction. Current smoking (odds ratio [OR] 2.56, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.31-5.03), hypertension (OR 2.08, 95% CI 1.09-3.97), bowel emptying (OR 3.25, 95% CI 1.59-6.63), and leukocytosis (OR 1.54, 95% CI 1.14-2.08) at admission were independently associated with arterial occlusive AMI compared to the non-AMI group.
CONCLUSIONS: This study found clinical and laboratory data to be associated with arterial occlusive AMI in patients with suspicion of AMI, which can possibly be of value in screening for arterial occlusive AMI at the emergency department. Further studies are needed to find more accurate diagnostic markers.
Methods: This prospective multicenter observational study was performed in 116 worldwide surgical departments from 44 countries over a 6-month period (April 1, 2016-September 30, 2016). All consecutive patients admitted to surgical departments with a clinical diagnosis of AA were included in the study.
Results: A total of 4282 patients were enrolled in the POSAW study, 1928 (45%) women and 2354 (55%) men, with a median age of 29 years. Nine hundred and seven (21.2%) patients underwent an abdominal CT scan, 1856 (43.3%) patients an US, and 285 (6.7%) patients both CT scan and US. A total of 4097 (95.7%) patients underwent surgery; 1809 (42.2%) underwent open appendectomy and 2215 (51.7%) had laparoscopic appendectomy. One hundred eighty-five (4.3%) patients were managed conservatively. Major complications occurred in 199 patients (4.6%). The overall mortality rate was 0.28%.
Conclusions: The results of the present study confirm the clinical value of imaging techniques and prognostic scores. Appendectomy remains the most effective treatment of acute appendicitis. Mortality rate is low.