[Relaparotomy in early postoperative complications in the abdominal cavity]

A series of 138 (1.3 per cent) re-laparotomies, performed for diverse complications subsequent to abdominal interventions, are reviewed. The lethality rate is rather high. Eighty-five patients died which makes 61.5 per cent those undergoing re-operation. Complications demanding re-laparotomy are divided up into five groups. Group I includes hemorrhage a/ in the lumen of the digestive canal and b/ in the abdominal cavity. Group II - postoperative peritonitis. It includes perforative, circumscribed and diffuse peritonitis without perforations, and due to suture insufficiency, as well as to necrosis of the pancreas and biliary peritonites. Group III - postoperative ileus conditions: mechanical and paralytic. Group IV - operative wound dehiscence. Group V - seventeen patients where re-laparotomy is justified by miscellaneous complications omitted in the listed above four basic groups.