Determining Universal Processes Related to Best Outcome in Emergency Gastrointestinal Surgery: an International Evaluation

Centre Inclusion Criteria: * Any acute surgical unit worldwide is eligible to enter * All participating centres will be required to register their details, complete an online training module, and complete a pilot audit prior to commencing. * Centres must ensure that they can include consecutive patients and provide at least 95% data completeness. * There is no minimum number of patients per centre, as long as the patient(s) included are consecutive. Inclusion Criteria: * All sequential patients undergoing emergency intra-peritoneal surgery during the chosen 2-week period should be included. * Emergency (unplanned, non-elective, same admission) procedures only. This includes patients undergoing an emergency re-operation after a previous procedure on the same in-patient stay. * Laparoscopic, laparoscopic converted and open cases can be included. * Any age patient (adult and paediatric) can be included. Exclusion Criteria: * Elective (planned) or semi-elective (where patient initially admitted as an emergency, then discharged from hospital, and re-admitted at later time for surgery) procedures. * Caesarean section. These patients represent a separate operative group, with different priorities and treatment pathways. They have been studied in detailed elsewhere, and their frequency would skew the results of this study.