A STUDY ON DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE, CLINICAL PRESENTATION AND MANAGEMENT OF CASES WITH PENETRATING ABDOMINAL INJURY

Abstract

Background: Penetrating abdominal injuries may cause con­siderable troubles at emergency service. The rate of non-therapeutic or negative laparotomy has been reported to be approximately 30% if routine laparotomy is performed in all penetrat­ing injuries. The present study was conducted with an objective to find out the demographic profile, clinical presentation, line of management, complications, morbidity and mortality occurring after such injuries and recent trends in management of penetrating abdominal injury.

Methodology: The present study was conducted on patients admitted with penetrating injury in the New Civil Hospital, Surat. The data of all patients regarding age, gender, laboratory and radiological investigations, sur­gical procedures, injured organs, length of hos­pital stay, follow-up were examined.

Results: There were total 38 cases involved in the study. Among the sex distribution, 37 (97.4) cases were male and 1 (2.6) cases were female. Most common region for external injury was epigastrium followed by umbilical. The commonest complication encountered in this study was shock (37%) & wound sepsis (18%). Average stay among the cases was 10 days. Most of the patient (70%) was discharge with in a period of 07-10 days.

Conclusion: The main problem in management of these patients are management of shock, recognition and management of multiple organ injury in emergency, control of hemorrhage, it’s appropriate management. When in doubt regarding penetration of peritoneum, it is better to open and see in these circumstances then to wait and watch.