[Early adhesive ileus after appendicectomy]

Abstract

For the period 1980-1988 a total of 5363 patients have been operated at the surgical clinics in the town of Pazardzhik. Early adhesive ileus developed in 13 (0.2 per cent). Intestinal obstruction occurred most frequently after destructive appendicitis (84,6 per cent). In 53.8 per cent of the patients it occurred during the first week after the operation. Conservative treatment was effective in only 2 patients. The other 11 were operated. The case fatality rate was 9.09 per cent. Acute appendicitis usually requires operative treatment both in children and in adults. It keeps on being one of the most important problems of modern surgery, agitating the surgeons all over the world. Appendicitis is called an insidious disease, not only because of the manifold clinical picture, but also because it has a leading position among the causes of the grave surgical complication peritonitis and occupies first place as cause of the severe pathology in the peritoneal cavity--the adhesive disease. Early intestinal obstruction is one of the severe complications following appendicectomy. According to available data in the literature, its incidence is between 0.06 and 0.8 per cent. Most authors consider intestinal obstruction as being early, when developing within three weeks after the operation.