[Causes for surgical interventions in HIV seropositive patients. 226 interventions]

Between January 1, 1983 and October 1, 1990, we performed 266 surgical operations in 255 patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. We report the reasons for these operations and compare them with those recorded in all patients operated upon in our department between January 1, 1988 and December 31, 1989 (4,960 operations in 4,498 patients). During the 1988-89 period, 2.4 percent of these patients had HIV infection, which suggests that the proportion of patients operated upon is the same in an HIV-infected population as in the general population. The proportion of HIV-infected patients who underwent surgery for diagnostic purposes or as adjuvant treatment was 42.7 percent as compared with 37.3 percent in the general population. Among laparotomies, 37.3 percent were exploratory in the HIV group versus 7.3 percent in the control group. The emergency surgery rate was the same in both groups. In gastrointestinal surgery, proctological operations were performed in 33.5 percent of the HIV group versus 7.4 percent of the control group. Among other types of surgery, only splenectomies were more frequent in HIV-infected patients than in the general population (6.3 versus 1.7 percent).