Failure to Improve Outcome in Acute Mesenteric Ischaemia: Seven Year Review

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the prognosis of acute mesenteric ischaemia has changed over the past seven years. DESIGN: Retrospective study. SETTING: Teaching hospital, Scotland. SUBJECTS: 57 patients who presented to this hospital between January 1987 and December 1993 with acute mesenteric ischaemia. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Morbidity, mortality and prognostic features. RESULTS: 46 of the 57 patients died. Only 18(32%) patients were accurately diagnosed before operation or death. Clinical presentation, white cell count, and serum amylase activity were not helpful in the diagnosis. Only 3 patients had mesenteric angiography, and none were given lytic agents or vasodilators. CONCLUSION: Mortality from acute mesenteric ischaemia has not changed during the past two decades and in the absence of an accurate diagnostic test is unlikely to do so.