Frequency of wound complications after surgery for small bowel obstruction

Abstract

1. 1. Surgery for small bowel obstruction is followed by a high incidence of wound complications. At Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital the incidence has been 20 per cent. There were twenty-four suppurative wound infections, three wound dehiscences, and one case of cellulitis in 143 consecutive cases between 1959 and 1969. None of the complications was fatal. 2. 2. The rate of wound complications was sharply increased in those patients in whom the small bowel was opened. The intestine was entered in 39 per cent of the patients, resulting in 76 per cent of the wound problems. 3. 3. Antibiotics appear to offer no protection against wound complications. Fifty-six per cent of the patients receiving such therapy had 79 per cent of the wound problems. 4. 4. Delay is associated with a higher incidence of wound infection. The seventy-nine patients whose symptoms were present longer than forty-eight hours accounted for 19 (68 per cent) of all wound problems. 5. 5. There was no relationship in this series between wound complications and location of the obstruction, sex, or age.