Mortality after laparotomy. A 10-year series.

The Department of Surgery at the University Hospital, Linköping has 133 beds and serves a population of 130000. During the 10-year period 1962-1971 35039 in-patient operations were performed, of which 16719 (48%) were laparotomies. If fracture surgery and urological operations are excluded (during the relevant period these specialties were included under General Surgery) the proportion of laparotomies becomes 67%. Of patients subjected to this procedure 431 (2.58%) died. The mortality for appendicectomy was 0.2%, for gall-bladder surgery 1.3%, for gastric surgery 8.1%, for colon surgery 11.9% for small-gut surgery (including ileus) 15.2%, and for pancreatic surgery 22.2%. Over and above the target organ, malignancy and age exceeding 50 years appear to have contributed greatly to a lethal outcome.