Infectious complications of the abdomen following gastric operations.

A retrospective study of postoperative abdominal infectious complications has been carried out for 625 consecutive patients operated upon for various gastroduodenal disorders during a ten year period; 14.7 per cent of the patients had a wound infection postoperatively and 6.6 per cent, an intra-abdominal abscess. In two-thirds of the patients with an abscess, a leakage was noted from an anastomosis. The patients who seemed to possess a particular risk of having septic complications postoperatively were those operated upon to control bleeding, patients having a second operation during the same hospital stay, patients operated upon for a recurrent ulcer and those operated upon for cancer. Furthermore, the type of operation performed, the age of the patient and some other patient related and hospital related factors, particularly coexisting hypoproteinemia or hypoalbuminemia, or both, seemed to influence adversely the infectious morbidity. The significance of these postoperative complications is also illustrated by the mortality figures and by the increased hospital stay brought about by these complications.