[Surgically treated mechanical ileus].

Between 1972 and 1983 a total of 351 patients was operated suffering from mechanical occlusion of the small intestine (n = 256) and of the colon (n = 95). The surgical complication rate amounted to 28.1% in cases of small intestine ileus and to 24.3% in cases of colon ileus; the most frequent complications were anastomotic dehiscences following resections (small intestine 17.7%/colon 33.8%), enterotomies (5.8%/27.2%), abdominal wall ruptures (3.5%/4.2%) and re-ileus (5.5%/3.2%). The medical complication rate (postop. pneumonia, pulmonary embolism, cardial decompensation etc.) amounted to 17.7% resp. 22.1%. All these complications carried a mortality of 20.6% in small intestine ileus and of 30.4% in colon ileus. The consequences of this retrospective analysis resulted in: early intensive care treatment, general perioperative thrombosis-, pneumonia- and stress ulcer prophylaxis, exact preoperative radiological diagnosis, strict indications for enterotomies and resections, sole transversostomy in stage of ileus for the left-sided colon obstruction caused by carcinoma, discontinuity resection by Hartmann in cases of inflammatory or perforated large bowel stenoses and tube decompression of the small bowel in cases of peritonitis or wide-spread adhesions. Since 1984 we could prospectively decrease the complication resp. mortality rate of the small intestine ileus (n = 64) to 9.4% resp. 4.7% and of the colon ileus (n = 20) to 10% resp. 5%.