Mesenteric infarction

This is a review of 46 patients with intestinal infarction who underwent emergency surgery over a 10‐year period. These operations constituted 0.38% of the acute abdominal operations performed during that period. Overall mortality rate was 84.7%, but varied according to the cause of acute intestinal infarction. The prognosis was significantly related to the patient's age and time lapse between clinical onset and operation. Diabetes, hypertension, obesity, atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease, vague abdominal pain, and chronic diarrhea were common findings in nearly all the cases of arterial thrombosis. Severe hemodynamic alterations either of cardiac origin or due to shock were important etiologic factors in cases of nonocclusive mesenteric infarction. A potentially embolic cardiopathy existed in all except 1 patient with arterial embolism, and predisposing factors were present in all except 2 patients with venous thrombosis. At the present time, 3 patients are alive but under medical and dietary support. Only those patients in good general condition without chronic systemic diseases, who receive early surgical treatment, have any chance of surviving this disorder.