NONTRAUMATIC PERFORATION OF SMALL-INTESTI NE

An overview of a series of patients treated for peritonitis over the l ast 5 years showed that in 64 cases (6.8%) the infection was due to a non traumatic perforation of small intestine. The predominant aetiolog y was typhoid fever (39 cases), other causes for the peritonitis were perforation of an abdominal diastasis (10 cases) or a Meckel's diverti culum (8 cases), and perforation due to an acute ileitis (2 cases), a non Hodgkins malignant lymphoma (2 cases), a necrotizing enteritis (2 cases) and a jejunal tuberculoma (1 case). The surgical attitude to be adopted for repair of the perforated loop is dependent on the aetiolo gy and the degree of peritoneal sepsis. Enterostomy should be performe d as a safety measure in patients with perforation due to typhoid feve r.