Failure to improve outcome in acute mesenteric ischaemia: seven-year review.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether the prognosis of acute mesenteric ischaemia has changed over the past seven years.


METHODS
Retrospective study.


METHODS
Teaching hospital, Scotland.


METHODS
57 patients who presented to this hospital between January 1987 and December 1993 with acute mesenteric ischaemia.


METHODS
Morbidity, mortality and prognostic features.


RESULTS
46 of the 57 patients died. Only 18(32%) patients were accurately diagnosed before operation or death. Clinical presentation, white cell count, and serum amylase activity were not helpful in the diagnosis. Only 3 patients had mesenteric angiography, and none were given lytic agents or vasodilators.


CONCLUSIONS
Mortality from acute mesenteric ischaemia has not changed during the past two decades and in the absence of an accurate diagnostic test is unlikely to do so.
Mamode
N
N
Peripheral Vascular Unit, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Scotland. nizam@mamode.demon.co.uk
Pickford
I
I
Leiberman
P
P
D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002423:Cause of Death; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007511:Ischemia / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008638:Mesenteric Arteries; D008641:Mesenteric Vascular Occlusion / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery; D008642:Mesenteric Veins; D008643:Mesentery / Q000098:blood supply*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012606:Scotland / Q000453:epidemiology; D013923:Thromboembolism / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery; D016896:Treatment Outcome