Abstract

A clinical observation was made on 212 cases of postoperative adhesive ileus, admitted to Chonnam National University Hospital during 5 years from Jan. 1985. The results were as follows: 1) The most prevalent age group was 6th decade in cases of 64(30, 19%) and male to female ratio was 2. 5: I, 2) The most common cause of postoperative adhesive ileus was appendectomy in 78 cases (36. 79%) and followed by gastric surgery in 40 case(18,87%), small bowel surgery 32 cases (15.09%), large bowel surgery 20 cases(9. 43%), and gynecological surgery 16 cases(3.30% ) 3)The cardinal symptoms and signs were abdominal pain(79,92%),vomiting(69.81%), abdominal distension(64.02%), increased bowel sound(84.91%), abdominal tenderness(69.81%) and rebound tenderness(19, 81%). 4) The most prevalent interval from the previous operation to postoperative adhesive ileus was within 1 year. 5) As for the operative procedure of 100 cases(47. 17%), 52 cases were treated by enterolysis or band lysis, 38 cases by intestinal resection, 7 cases by intestinal bypass and 1 case by colostomy. 9) The site of obstruction was 88% in small bowel(37% in ileum) and 12% in large bowel. 7) The incidence of postoperative complication was 24 cases(24%) and most common complication was wound infection in 41.67%. 8) Overall mortality rate was 0.94% and postoperative mortality was 2%, The causes of death were sepsis with bleeding due to disseminated intravascular coagulation and renal failure.