Why the study?
What are the predisposing factors for wound infections, wound failures, and chest complications following major laparotomy?
What are the predisposing factors for wound infections, wound failures, and chest complications following major laparotomy?
Identifies key avoidable and unavoidable risk factors for complications following major laparotomy to guide perioperative management.
These factors may inform perioperative risk assessment after laparotomy; leaves open prospective trials to confirm modifiable risk reduction.
In a consecutive series of 1207 major laparotomies, the incidence of wound infections, wound failures and chest complications was prospectively recorded; this allowed certain predisposing factors to be identified, both avoidable and unavoidable. Among the former were operative bacterial contamination, haemorrhagic and septic shock and the use of nasogastric tubes; the most important of the latter were male sex and pre-existing bronchitis.
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A V Pollock (1981) studied this question.
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