Erik Osterman

Short presentation

I work clinically at the Surgery Department at Uppsala University Hospital as a fellow with an interest in colorectal and emergency and trauma surgery.

In my colorectal research I investigates to socioeconomic differences in a registry linkage project.

My acute care research focuses on gallstone disease and the risk of relapse if no surgery is performed.

I have a randomised controlled trial in the start-up phase.

Keywords

• colon
• cancer
• md
• cholecystitis
• emergency general surgery
• registry based research
• epidemiology

Biography

Academic

MD Uppsala University 2010-2015

PhD 2021 Uppsala University

PostDoc Karolinska Institute 2022-2026

Associate professor in surgery Uppsala University 2026

Clinical

Intern Gävle Hospital 2015-2017

Resident at the Surgery Department at Gävle Hospital 2017-2024

Resident at the Surgery Department of Uppsala University Hospital 2024

Fellow at Emergency General Surgery and Trauma section at the Surgery and Urology department, Uppsala University Hospital, 2025-current

Research

Emergency surgery in the frail, deprived and with the highest risks of complications - how large are the risks, is treatment equal and can we do anything?

The overarching aim is to study complications, treatment choices and interventions in emergency surgery.

In a first project, the risk of complications from surgery for gallstone pain and gallstone-related complications is being studied using national registry data. The focus is on elderly and frail patients, a group expected to grow due to demographic changes and improved healthcare, which allows more people to survive conditions such as stroke, heart attack, and cancer. The aim is to provide information on which treatment method is best for these patients and how to inform them about the risks associated with surgery.

In a second project, pharmacoepidemiology is being investigated, as well as whether and how socioeconomic status and psychiatric comorbidity affect the management of acute onset cases involving stoma formation and resection surgery in colorectal cancer (CRC). The goal is to identify any disparities, highlight them, and find ways to address them.

In a third project, an intervention is planned for patients undergoing laparotomy for acute abdominal conditions (e.g., ileus, cancer, diverticulitis). Infections and wound dehiscence are common after this type of surgery, causing suffering for patients and costs for the healthcare system. The aim of the study is to evaluate whether negative pressure wound therapy can reduce the incidence of infections and wound dehiscence.

Clinical Benefit

For patients with gallstone disease, the knowledge generated by these studies may directly benefit participants, as gallstone disease tends to be chronic and the risk of recurrent complications remains if surgery is not performed. The risk of a second colorectal cancer is lower, but even these patients may benefit from research based on collected data. The hope is that results from registry data and collected material will benefit large patient groups in the future through more effective diagnostic methods and treatments.

One of the core principles of Swedish healthcare is equality and the right of all individuals to receive good care. If there are patient groups being disadvantaged, it is our duty to identify and address these disparities. While the project may not fully explain why these differences exist, it will hopefully identify where they occur. This is a starting point for understanding the causes and finding solutions.

Negative pressure therapy in elective surgery reduces the risk of wound infection by 30%. In emergency surgery, small non-randomized studies have shown a reduction of over 50%. If these results hold in a randomized study, the impact on patients and healthcare could be significant. Patients who develop wound infections or dehiscence have much longer hospital stays, may require additional surgery, and often need care at a higher level due to these complications. In the long term, incisional hernias resulting from wound dehiscence may require further surgery and cause pain and new complications.

Previous research

My focus was colorectal cancer as a PhD student and I specialised in registry data to develop prediction models for recurrence. I was also involved in studies of biomarkers and genomics for predicition of recurrences.

I'm currently affiliated with Karolinska Institute as well as Uppsala University doing my postdoc in a group that developed a registry-linkage data base, CRCBaSe. Here I've been investigating socioeconomic differences in colorectal cancer treatment and survival.

To connect to my clinical work, I've also collected a retrospective population cohort of patients with cholecystitis and investigated recurrence risks, treatment patterns and operative complications. Compared to previous studies from Sweden, this data included those that did not have surgery.