Diagnosis, Management and Outcomes of Intestinal Obstruction at an Urban Tertiary Hospital in Sub Saharan Africa: a Cross-Sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: Intestinal Obstruction (IO) is among the commonest causes of acute abdomen worldwide and globally it remains a challenge because it is a major cause of morbidity and surgical financial expenditure. Clinically it presents with nausea, vomiting, colicky abdominal pain and cessation of bowel movements or passage flatus and stool. Diagnosis can be clinical but is confirmed usually by radiologic imaging. We studied the current diagnosis, management and outcomes of IO in Mulago Hospital MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a Prospective Descriptive Study in all the surgical units of Mulago from January to May 2014. Ethical approval was got in line with Helsinki declaration and then a pretested and validated questionnaire was used to collect data. Informed consent was got with eligible and consenting/assenting patients recruited among those patients of all ages and sex presenting with suspected Intestinal Obstruction. Uni-variate and bi-variate of the variables plus measurements of associations were done. RESULTS We enrolled 135 patients, excluded 25 and recruited 110 patient with more males than females i.e. 71.8% males and 28.2% females. Colicky abdominal pain, abdominal distension, and vomiting were the 3 commonest symptoms with abdominal distension, increased bowel sounds and abdominal tenderness as commonest signs. Majority of the patients were diagnosed radiologically (51%) and the rest (48.2%) clinically diagnosed accounting. “Dilated bowel loops” was the most frequent radiological sign. Return of bowel sounds occurred within 5 days of the POD, while opening of bowels on average, occurred on the 3 rd POD. The mean day of discharge was the 5 th POD and 73% of the patients were discharged by the 7 th Post-Operative Day. The commonest unfavourable management outcome noted was prolonged hospital stay followed by wound sepsis (Surgical Site Infection) and Mortality CONCLUSION: Majority of the patients were diagnosed radiologically (51%). surgical management was done for 72.7% of the cases and 27.3% conservatively managed. Prolonged hospital stay was the commonest unfavorable outcome of management