The pattern of acute intestinal obstruction in a peripheral district of eastern India.

This is a review of 146 patients operated upon over a period of five years, for 150 episodes of mechanical intestinal obstruction, in a developing country in the tropics. The pattern of intestinal obstructions reveals that external hernia accounts for the largest number of cases followed by volvulus which today still forms the second largest group. Operative mortality was 28%. The major adverse factors were gangrenous bowel and large bowel obstruction. The highest mortality rate (about 41.3%) was found in volvulus.