Introduction:

Abdominal surgery re-interventions cause high mortality in general surgery services.

Objective:

To characterize morbidity and mortality of urgent and elective abdominal surgery re-interventions in the general surgery service of Manuel Ascunce Domenech University Hospital.

Methods:

A cross-sectional, descriptive, observational study was carried out with patients who required abdominal surgical re-intervention. The universe consisted of 236 patients who met the inclusion criteria. Descriptive statistical methods and calculations with percentage values were used.

Results:

There was a predominance of the age group 40-49 years and the male sex, accounting for 25% and 64.8%, respectively. Regarding time of performance of re-intervention, 72.5% was carried out after 48 hours. 88.6% of the patients had, in the first re-intervention, a solution for the cause that originated it. The most frequent causes were generalized peritonitis, followed by intraabdominal abscesses, accounting for 19.5% and 17.4%, respectively. Mortality was 30.1% and pulmonary embolism was the direct cause of death in 12.3% of cases.

Conclusions:

Almost all the cases were re-intervened after 48 hours and two thirds had a solution the first re-intervention. Generalized peritonitis and intraabdominal abscesses were the cause of re-intervention, in a significant number.

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