[Surgical treatment of intestinal obstruction]

The etiology of intestinal obstruction (I.O.) has changed markedly since the beginning of this century. In this series, the authors studied 121 cases of I.O. treated surgically; adhesions were the commonest cause of high intestinal obstruction, accounting for 43.03 percent in a total of 79 patients, with hernia being the obstruction lesion in 16.45 percent. Colo-rectal cancer were the commonest cause of low intestinal obstruction accounted for 73.81 percent, with volvulus of the sigmoid colon in 14.28 percent. Complications occurred in 15.7 percent of patients following operative intervention; wound infection was the most common postoperative complication. The overall operative mortality was 9.09 percent.