Original Article

Factors Associated with Morbidity and Mortality in Patients with Mechanical Bowel Obstruction

10.5152/jaem.2011.076

  • Nurkal Halis
  • Özgür Söğüt
  • Cahfer Güloğlu
  • Abdullah Özgönül
  • Mehmet Tahir Gökdemir
  • Hasan Mansur Durgun

Eurasian J Emerg Med 2012;11(1):1-5

Objective:

The aim of this study was to investigate the factors affecting morbidity and mortality by evaluating the demographical, etiological and clinical characteristics of patients with mechanical bowel obstruction.

Materials and Methods:

Data for 171 mechanical bowel obstruction patients were evaluated retrospectively. The patients were assessed in mortality (n=21), morbidity (n=55) and recovery (n=95) groups.

Results:

Of the patients, 70% were men; and 27.4% were ≥55 years of age. While gender had no impact on mortality and morbidity, age did. Adhesion was observed to be the leading cause (45.6%) of mechanical bowel obstruction, followed by incarcerated hernia in 17.5%. Intestinal necrosis was associated with mortality but not with morbidity. Late presentation and multiple concomitant diseases had no impact on mortality but were associated with morbidity. The presence of a concomitant disease and leukocytosis or leukopenia had a significant impact on both mortality and morbidity.

Conclusion:

Older age and presence of a concomitant disease, leukocytosis or leukopenia were established to be associated with mortality and morbidity. Late presentation and multiple concomitant diseases were associated only with morbidity. The presence of intestinal necrosis was associated only with mortality. Establishing the risk factors well will be beneficial in lowering the incidences of morbidity and mortality.

Keywords: Mechanical bowel obstruction, risk factor, morbidity, mortality