Perforated Gas Containing Hollow Viscus : A study in a Hospital, Bangladesh

During the period from May 2001 to December 2001, a total number of emergency admissions in surgery unit -V. of DMCH was 450. Out of them l00 were due to perforated gas containing hollow viscus (Table-1 ), majority of them were from duodenal ulcer (72%), 10% from typhoid ulcer, 06% from intestinal tuberculosis and the remaining were from other causes (Table-7). 84% were male and 16% were female (Table3), 60 were of age between 21-40 yrs (Table-2). All of the patients presented with pain in the abdomen, 64% with vomiting, 72% with abdominal distension, 44% were febrile, 6% with shock (Table-4). 80% of patients were of low 'socioeconomic status, 74% were smoker, 84% were involved in stressful job, 60% of irregular dietary habit and 72% perforation developed in fasting state (Table-10). Most of the patients attended after 6 hours of onset of symptoms,14 came after 24 hours, two even came after 12 days (Table-5). 94 were surgically treated, of which 60 were recovered uneventfully, 30 developed complications and 4 died post-operatively (Table-11, 12). On 50 patients repair with omental patch was performed, others were managed by different techniques including definitive surgery in some cases (Table-9).