Complications of gastrointestinal surgery in companion animals.

The small animal surgeon creates wounds in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract for biopsy, for foreign body or neoplasm removal, or to relieve obstruction. Unlike a skin wound, dehiscence of a wound of the GI tract often leads to generalized bacterial peritonitis and potentially death. Technical failures and factors that negatively affect GI healing are of great clinical significance. Surgery of the GI tract must be considered clean-contaminated at best; as one progresses aborally down the GI tract, the bacterial population increases. Intraoperative spillage, wound dehiscence, or perforations that occur in the lower small intestine or colon tend to be associated with a relatively higher mortality rate.