title: Abdominal adhesions after small intestinal surgery in the horse.
abstract: One hundred thirteen of 172 horses (66%) undergoing exploratory celiotomy for a small intestinal lesion survived 4 or more days after surgery. Intra-abdominal adhesions causing clinical problems requiring additional surgery or euthanasia were documented in 25 horses (22.1%). Problems developed in significantly more males than females. The most common initial small bowel lesion was ileal impaction (12 horses); 21 horses underwent small intestinal resection or bypass. However, there was no significant difference in the incidence of intra-abdominal adhesions between horses that underwent intestinal resection or bypass and those that did not. Only 4 of the 25 horses (16%) with problems associated with postoperative adhesions survived. The mean interval between surgical procedures or between the initial procedure and euthanasia for all horses was 84 days (range, 7-512 days; median, 25 days). However, 70% of the subsequent celiotomies were performed within 60 days of the previous surgery. The mean interval between celiotomies was 221 days (range, 9-512 days) for the survivors and 61 days (range, 7-358 days) for the nonsurvivors. These results indicated that most of the problems related to postoperative intra-abdominal adhesions occurred within 2 months of the initial small intestinal surgery. Furthermore, the earlier development of postoperative adhesions was associated with a poorer prognosis for survival.
authors.affiliation: Department of Large Animal Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens 30602.
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Baxter
authors.forename: T E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Broome
authors.forename: J N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Moore
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D001947:Breeding; D005260:Female; D006736:Horses / Q000601:surgery*; D007410:Intestinal Diseases / Q000209:etiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D007415:Intestinal Obstruction / Q000209:etiology / Q000662:veterinary; D007421:Intestine, Small / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000662:veterinary*; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D000267:Tissue Adhesions / Q000209:etiology / Q000662:veterinary