IROA: the International Register of Open Abdomen.

Actually the most common indications for Open Abdomen (OA) are trauma, abdominal sepsis, severe acute pancreatitis and more in general all those situations in which an intra-abdominal hypertension condition is present, in order to prevent the development of an abdominal compartment syndrome. The mortality and morbidity rate in patients undergone to OA procedures is still high. At present many studies have been published about the OA management and the progresses in survival rate of critically ill trauma and septic surgical patients. However several issues are still unclear and need more extensive studies. The definitions of indications, applications and methods to close the OA are still matter of debate. To overcome this lack of high level of evidence data about the OA indications, management, definitive closure and follow-up, the World Society of Emergency Surgery (WSES) promoted the International Register of Open Abdomen (IROA). The register will be held on a web platform (Clinical Registers®) through a dedicated web site: www.clinicalregisters.org. This will allow to all surgeons and physicians to participate from all around the world only by having a computer and a web connection. The IROA protocol has been approved by the coordinating center Ethical Committee (Papa Giovanni XXIII hospital, Bergamo, Italy). IROA has also been registered to ClinicalTrials.gov (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02382770).