EARLY MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY OF NON-THERAPEUTIC OPERATIONS FOR PENETRATING TRAUMA

A retrospective study was performed in order to evaluate early morbidi ty and mortality associated with non-therapeutic operations for penetr ating trauma. Over a 3-year period, 1,062 operations were performed on 1,015 patients for penetrating injury: abdomen 860, chest 103, neck 4 0, and extremities 58. A total of 230 (21.7%) of these operations were non-therapeutic. The incidence of significant complications directly related to the anesthesia or operation in this group of patients was 8 .2 per cent. One patient with an additional major thoracic injury died secondary to complications related to a non-therapeutic abdominal ope ration (0.4%). The average hospital stay for uncomplicated non-therape utic operations was 5.1 days, and for patients with complications 11.9 days. We conclude that non-therapeutic operations for penetrating tra uma are associated with significant morbidity and mortality that must be considered when designing management schemes for penetrating injury .