Emergencies in digestive surgery at the Regional Teaching Hospital of Ouahigouya (Burkina Faso) about 394 cases

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the epidemiological and clinical profile of emergencies in digestive
surgery as well as the results of their treatment in semi-urban environment of Burkina Faso. It was a
descriptive and retrospective study during 12 months on 394 patients operated for a digestive surgical emergency
and having a complete clinical data. During the study period, 2360 patients were admitted in hospital,
including 394 operated for a digestive surgical emergency (16.7%). Two hundred and ninety patients were
male and 104 female, with a ratio sex of 2.7 and an average age of 33 years. Found etiologies have been in
order of decreasing frequency, the acute peritonitis with 37% of cases (146), strangulated hernias with 24.1%
(95) of cases, the appendicitis with 22.6% of cases (89) and acute intestinal obstructions with 16.3% of cases
(64). Complications are occurred in 59 cases (14.9%) with a predominance of the parietal infections (33
cases).The rate of mortality was 8.12%. Digestive surgical emergencies are frequent; it is in our context a
disease of the young adult male. They come from several etiologies with a predominance of acute generalized
peritonitis of appendicular origin. The management of these emergencies is medico-surgical and remains
enameled with a high mortality rate. The double diagnosis and therapeutic delay could be the cause. Also,
the improvement of the prognosis of these surgical emergencies requires a sensitization of the communities
on these pathologies, the training of the health personnel to the diagnosis of these pathologies and the
establishment of universal health coverage.