The surgical treatment of small bowel obstruction

Background and Aims: Small bowel obstruction is a disease the surgeon frequ ently is confronted with. In the present study the records of the patients (n = 202) with mechanical obstruction of the small intestine from the last four years were analysed and the results are critically compared with the l iterature. Methods: In the reported retrospective study the length of patie nt's history, the cause of bowel obstruction, the preoperative examinations performed, the kind of surgical intervention and the postoperative managem ent and outcome were investigated. Results: The average patient's age was 6 2 years, the mean preoperative duration of symptoms was 6.5 days. 77 % of t he patients had underwent abdominal surgery prior to the obstruction. Conve ntional x-ray was performed in 92 %, gastrographin passage in 46 % and CT-s can in 23 % of the cases. The average length of hospitalisation was 12 days . The overall postoperative morbidity was 21 %, the mortality 2.5 %. Conclu sion: It could be shown that patient's history, clinical symptoms and conve ntional x-rays of the abdomen are sufficient for the indication of surgical intervention. In uncertain cases the examination of the passage with contr ast medium is recommended. The surgical results of small bowel obstruction management have significantly improved over the past decades, today's morta lity is lower than 5 %.