Disembowelment--a retrospective study of patients suffering evisceration following penetrating abdominal injury.

Details are presented of 104 patients admitted over a 1-year period with evisceration following penetrating abdominal wounds. Stabbing was the most common cause of injury. Small bowel was the most commonly eviscerated organ, as well as the organ most frequently injured. Exploratory laparotomy was performed on all the patients who survived to reach the operating theatre. The negative laparotomy rate was 12 per cent, and a further 3 per cent had such mild visceral injuries that they did not require operative repair. For comparison a group of 111 patients admitted over the same period, but suffering only omental protrusion, was also examined. The rate of visceral injury in this group was slightly lower. Wound complications, including breakdown, were more commonly seen in the eviscerated patients, but the mortality was 8 per cent in both groups.