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Weekend emergency surgery is no riskier than operations during week, study finds

BMJ 2017; 356 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j1473 (Published 23 March 2017) Cite this as: BMJ 2017;356:j1473
  1. Nigel Hawkes
  1. London

Deaths in patients who have emergency surgery at the weekend are no more likely than in those whose operations take place on weekdays, a study in Scotland has found.1

In contrast with earlier studies that have shown a “weekend effect” among patients having elective surgery, the team, led by Michael Gillies, consultant anaesthetist at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, found no evidence of higher short term or long term deaths in emergency patients operated on at the weekend.

In the British Journal of Surgery the team reported a cohort study looking at patients who had emergency general surgery in Scotland from 2005 to 2007.1 Data from Information Services Scotland identified 50 844 patients who had general surgical procedures, of whom 31 499 had their operation on a weekday (defined as Monday to Thursday) and 19 345 on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. The patients …

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