Colon trauma--clinical staging for surgical decision making. Analysis of 119 cases.

A retrospective study is presented of 119 patients admitted to the Central Hospital of the Venezuelan Institute of Social Security, in Caracas, between 1982 and 1990, with the diagnosis of colon trauma. Several parameters including age, etiology, time elapsed between the accident or assault and hospital admission, preoperative and postoperative hemoglobin and diastolic blood pressure, associated lesions, procedure practiced, complication rate, and hospital mortality are reviewed. The second and third decades of life appear most often involved. Most patients reached the hospital within the first four hours of the accident or assault. Anemia, sustained diastolic hypotension, and number of organs involved in addition to the colon were important prognostic factors for complications. Apparently the surgical procedure, with simple suture or resection, mostly without "protective" colostomy, was not very relevant. Hospital mortality was 2.4 percent. A staging system based on clinical conditions for decision making in the operating room was used in an attempt to inject some objectivity into the surgical approach.