Abdominal stab wounds in Lagos: A review of fifty cases.

BACKGROUND: The optimum management of patients with abdominal stab wounds (ASWs) is yet to be fully elucidated.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the pattern of injury, treatment offered and outcome in patients with ASWs seen at our tertiary hospital.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was a retrospective descriptive study of patients who sustained ASWs seen from January 2011 to December 2015. Information obtained from case notes were analysed on a personal computer using SPSS version 22 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA).P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS: Fifty patients who sustained ASWs were included in the study. Forty-four (88%) were males, mean age was 27 years and 50% were between the ages of 21 and 30 years. The wounding weapon in patients was the knife in 26 (52%) and broken bottle in 14 (28%). Our patients presented at the hospital about 3 h after abdominal stabs and surgical intervention time was uniformly prolonged. Forty-eight (96%) patients had emergency laparotomy, whereas two (4%) patients with omental evisceration were treated using the policy of selective non-operative management. The commonly injured organs were stomach (22.9%), small bowel (20.8%), omentum (18.8%), colon (18.8%) and liver (14.6%). The negative laparotomy rate was 31.3%. The knife was a more lethal weapon than broken bottle in our patients (P<0.05). Seven (14%) patients suffered serious post-operative complications and two (4%) died.

CONCLUSION: The high therapeutic laparotomy rates observed in our patients who had generalised peritonitis, evisceration and shock, support the fact that these findings should be indications for immediate laparotomy.