Wound Complications Following Laparoscopic Surgery in a Nigerian Hospital

BACKGROUND Different complications may occur at laparoscopic port sites. The incidence of these varies with the size of the ports and the types of procedure performed through them. OBJECTIVES The aim was to observe the rate and types of complications attending laparoscopic port wounds and to identify risk factors for their occurrence. PATIENTS AND METHODS This is a prospective descriptive study of all patients who had laparoscopic operations in one general surgery unit of a University Teaching Hospital in Nigeria between January 2009 and December 2012. RESULTS A total of 236 (155 female and 81 male) patients were included. The laparoscopic procedures include 63 cholecystectomies, 49 appendectomies, 62 diagnostic, biopsy and staging procedures, 22 adhesiolyses, six colonic surgeries, eight hernia repairs and 22 others. Port site complications occurred in 18 (2.8%) ports on 16 (6.8%) patients including port site infections in 12 (5.1%) and hypertrophic scars in 4 (1.7%) patients, while one patient each had port site bleeding and port site metastasis. Nine of 11 infections were superficial, while eight involved the umbilical port wound. CONCLUSION Port site complications are few following laparoscopic surgeries in our setting. We advocate increased adoption of laparoscopic surgeries in Nigeria to reduce wound complications that commonly follow conventional open surgeries.