Chris Braumann1, Verena Müller2, Moritz Knies1, Birgit Aufmesser2, Wolfgang Schwenk3, Gerold Koplin4,5. 1. Department of General and Visceral Surgery, St. Josef-Hospital, Ruhr University of Bochum, Bochum, Germany. 2. Department of General, Visceral, Vascular and Thoracic Surgery, Charité - University Medicine Berlin, Campus Mitte, Berlin, Germany. 3. Department of General and Visceral Surgery, Städtisches Klinikum, Solingen, Germany. 4. Department of General, Visceral, Vascular and Thoracic Surgery, Charité - University Medicine Berlin, Campus Mitte, Berlin, Germany. g.koplin@mic-berlin.de. 5. Klinik für Minimal Invasive Chirurgie (MIC), Berlin, Germany. g.koplin@mic-berlin.de.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Complications are common after ostomy surgery. Data from the Berlin OStomy Study were evaluated to determine risk factors for complications. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients with a bowel ostomy were questioned using a questionnaire concerning patients' characteristics and history as well as the ostomy and its complications. The questionnaire also contained a nine-fielded abdominal sketch to determine the exact ostomy location. RESULTS: Over 42 months, 2647 patients completed the questionnaire. Obese patients and patients after emergency surgery were more prone to ostomy-related complications. This result was independent of the kind of ostomy (small bowel ostomy or colostomy) and of the abdominal location. The overall ostomy complication rate was 55.6%. CONCLUSION: Significantly more complications were recorded after emergency surgery and in obese patients than after elective surgery and in non-obese patients, respectively. There was no preferential abdominal location for avoiding general ostomy complications. The results emphasized the importance of preoperative ostomy site marking by qualified personnel such as ostomy nurses or surgeons to reduce complication rates by respecting individual abdominal configurations. With an increasing prevalence of obesity, ostomy surgery will become even more challenging in the future. A division of the abdominal wall into nine regions might be helpful and more precise for describing and examining ostomy-related complications in the future.
BACKGROUND: Complications are common after ostomy surgery. Data from the Berlin OStomy Study were evaluated to determine risk factors for complications. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients with a bowel ostomy were questioned using a questionnaire concerning patients' characteristics and history as well as the ostomy and its complications. The questionnaire also contained a nine-fielded abdominal sketch to determine the exact ostomy location. RESULTS: Over 42 months, 2647 patients completed the questionnaire. Obesepatients and patients after emergency surgery were more prone to ostomy-related complications. This result was independent of the kind of ostomy (small bowel ostomy or colostomy) and of the abdominal location. The overall ostomy complication rate was 55.6%. CONCLUSION: Significantly more complications were recorded after emergency surgery and in obesepatients than after elective surgery and in non-obesepatients, respectively. There was no preferential abdominal location for avoiding general ostomy complications. The results emphasized the importance of preoperative ostomy site marking by qualified personnel such as ostomy nurses or surgeons to reduce complication rates by respecting individual abdominal configurations. With an increasing prevalence of obesity, ostomy surgery will become even more challenging in the future. A division of the abdominal wall into nine regions might be helpful and more precise for describing and examining ostomy-related complications in the future.