Abdominal wound dehiscence and evisceration: contributing factors and improved mortality.

a retrospective review of 18,120 abdominal procedures produced 70 patients who developed abdominal wound dehiscence and/or evisceration. Our mortality rate of 5.5% was considerably lower than the previously reported high mortality rates in patients with these complications. Surprisingly, the mortality rate of patients with evisceration was the same as those patients with dehiscence only. The predominant factor association with wound dehiscence in our group of patients was exogenous obesity.