Emergency Exploratory Laparotomy

Abstract

This paper presents a prospective study of 100 patients of acute non traumatic abdomen, admitted to the Mosul Teaching Hospitals over a period of two years, from May 1987 to April 1989.
We carried out this study to find out the causes of acute abdomen and the relative importance of the clinical features to the preoperative diagnosis which was confirmed later by the operative findings at the emergency exploratory laparotomy (ELL) which followed. The most important indications for laparotomy were abdominal pain, abdominal tenderness and vomiting.
The different causes of acute abdomen were studied and analysed. Causes of perforated viscera with abdominal complications and mechanical intenstinal obstruction were the commonest general surgical abdominal emergencies.
the commonest age group was children between 2 months and 9 years and the commonest two causes in this age group were intussusception and mesenteric lymph adenitis. The ratio of males to females was 1:1.
The operative findings after EEL showed a high incidence of perforated viscera (31%) and acute intestinal obstruction (29%), other causes were less. Negative ELL was 3%.
46% of the patients had abnormal radiological findings in the urgent plain X-ray of the abdomen.