Older patients undergoing emergency laparotomy: observations from the National Emergency Laparotomy Audit (NELA) years 1-4.

Background: older patients aged ≥65 years constitute the majority of the National Emergency Laparotomy Audit (NELA) population. To better understand this group and inform future service changes, this paper aims to describe patient characteristics, outcomes and process measures across age cohorts and temporally in the 4-year period (2014-2017) since NELA was established.

Methods: patient-level data were populated from the NELA data set years 1-4 and linked with Office of National Statistics mortality data.