Digestive Surgical Emergencies at the Commune II Reference Health Centre in the District of Bamako

Abstract

We conducted a prospective descriptive study from January 1 to December 31, 2018 with the objectives of determining the frequency of digestive surgical emergencies, describing the clinical and para-clinical aspects of the management of digestive surgical emergencies, evaluating the therapeutic aspect of digestive surgical emergencies and analysing the post-operative follow-up of patients operated on in emergencies. We counted 120 patients operated on for digestive surgical emergencies, which corresponds to 5.80% of all consultations and 44.80% of all surgical interventions. The male sex was the most represented with a ratio of 1.80. The average age was 27.5 years. The majority of patients were from Bamako. Abdominal pain was the reason for consultation in 80% of cases. The diagnosis was essentially clinical and paraclinical in doubtful cases. These included ultrasound, unprepared abdomen and sometimes abdominal CT scans. Acute appendicitis was the most common pathology with 42.5%. General anaesthesia and spinal anaesthesia were used with 50% each. The majority of patients were operated on between 30 minutes and 12 hours after their admission to the department (71.7%). Acute peritonitis accounted for 67% of deaths from sepsis. The surgical technique was decided according to the pathology and the surgeon’s choice. The postoperative course was simple in the majority of cases. The prognosis is good when the management is early. The treatment is medical-surgical.