Acute abdomen in the postoperative period after cytoreductive surgery--case report

Optimal cytoreductive surgery is essential in the treatment of ovarian cancer. Unfortunately many patients do not receive optimal treatment, despite numerous guidelines. The survival of patients receiving optimal surgery is twice the survival of patients receiving suboptimal surgery. There is no difference in complication rates between optimal and non-optimal surgery. An estimated 10% of the operated patients will have some kind of treatment-related morbidity. One of the most serious complications is acute abdomen in the postoperative period. Despite a long list of life-threatening situations there is sometimes also the unexpected complication, such as forgotten pain medication.