[Intubation of the small intestine in ileus. Technic, results, complications]

Operative intestinal intubation with Miller-Abbott-tube was performed on 188 patients from 1974 to 1988 in the Surgical Department of Dresden Academy of Medicine. In a retrospective analysis, the advantages and disadvantages of the method in treating the adhesion ileus are described and complications and lethality after predominantly orthograde nasal intestinal intubation are discussed. Exact indications and various operational details may help to reduce complications due to the tube-method to a minimum. The relatively high postoperative lethality (22.3%) was mainly caused by cardiopulmonary illness and peritonitis and does not result from the operative procedure. The fact that no early recurrent bowel obstruction was observed may be stated as an essential result, even though a relaparotomy due to late recurrence had to be made within 1 to 5 years after the first operation in 4% (8 patients) of 188 intestinal intubations.