[Gastric wounds: study of 85 patients]

During January 1987 and December 1990 we studied 85 patients (75 males), the age varying between 6 and 47 years (mean 27.6) sustaining penetrating (81 patients) and blunt (4 patients) gastric wounds. The mortality rate was 17.6% (15 patients) with four deaths occurring during the surgical procedure as consequence of critical associated injuries. Only one death happened as consequence of gastric wound; 6 patients died during the first 24 hours of hospitalization because of irreversible shock, 9 deaths came about after the first day of hospitalization (4 sepsis, 3 respiratory failure, 2 head trauma). The morbidity rate among the 81 patients that survived after surgical treatment was 39.5% (32 patients). The main postoperative gastric complication was vomiting in 10 patients (5 presenting vagus nerve injury and 5 sustaining pancreatic and/or another hollow viscus wounds) one patient presented with gastric suture dehiscence. Among the 12 patients sustaining vagus nerve injury the presence of gastric complication was higher in the group that was not submitted to pyloroplasty (6 patients). Analysing the patients presenting gastric and pancreatic injuries we verified that morbidity rate was statistically significantly higher in this group (69.2%) than in overall morbidity (39.5%).