Per-and Post-Operative Mortality in Patients Undergoing Exploratory Laparotomy at a General Hospital in Salvador-Bahia/Brazil

Background: Exploratory laparotomy is the use of the abdominal opening surgical maneuver to search for information and solve adverse problems through the operational environment.Very frequent in the urgency and emergency ambit, this centenary procedure ranks among the main abdominal surgeries.However, its high diagnostic capacity and wide therapeutic capacity, enhanced by current technoscientific advances, are opposed to the high mortality rates related by world literature.Objectives: Describe the per and postoperative mortality rate in exploratory laparotomies performed at a general hospital in Salvador-BA between June 2015 and June 2018, as well as present the clinical-surgical and epidemiological profile of patients who died due to such procedures.Methods: Observational, retrospective, descriptive, cross-sectional study that analyzes 1109 patients undergoing exploratory laparotomy in a general hospital in Salvador-BA.Data collection was performed using surgical records books, as well as patients' medical records.Mortality rate was investigated and, for those who die, epidemiological and clinicalsurgical variables were studied in order to describe the profile.Results: 52 patients died (4.68%).It was possible to analyze the clinical-surgical and epidemiological profile in 46 patients.There was a male prevalence, with 34 men (73.9%);The most affected age group was between 19 and 49 years, corresponding to 21 patients (45.7%);Firearm projectile injury was observed in 17 patients (37%); Progression with infection in the postoperative period was reported in 12 patients (26.1%); 23 had septic