title: The management of 38 anastomotic leaks after 1,684 intestinal resections.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study was designed to evaluate the management of anastomotic leaks and assess the impact of outpatient leak presentation on clinical outcome.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-eight patients with clinical anastomotic leaks from 1,684 adult patients undergoing large and small intestinal anastomosis in a tertiary referral center between January 1, 2003 and September 1, 2005 were studied. All pediatric patients and adult patients with esophageal and gastric leaks were excluded. Charts were reviewed for information on anastomotic leak management, discharge status before leak presentation, length of stay, readmissions, and mortality.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall leak rate was 2.3 percent. Eighty-seven percent of patients (n = 33) were managed operatively. Forty-two percent of patients (n = 16) were discharged after initial operation and presented as outpatients with anastomotic leak. The discharge and inpatient groups were comparable in respect to total length of stay (26.9 vs. 33.4 days) and number of readmissions (2 vs. 1.5). The overall mortality of 5 percent (n = 2) originated from the discharge group. A greater percentage of discharge patients required intensive care unit stays for more than two weeks (25 vs. 14 percent) and very long hospital admissions lasting more than two months (31 vs. 9 percent). A smaller percentage of the discharge group patients had their ostomies reversed (31 vs. 50 percent).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The primary management of clinical anastomotic leak remains intestinal diversion. Although length of stay was shorter in the discharge group, the number of patients who experienced significant intensive care unit stays and very long hospital stays was greater. Within the discharge group, mortality was higher and fewer patients had their ostomies reversed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, The Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY 10029, USA.
authors.forename: John C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Byrn
authors.forename: Avraham
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schlager
authors.forename: Celia M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Divino
authors.forename: Kaare J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Weber
authors.forename: Donald T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Baril
authors.forename: Aurthur H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Aufses
mesh_terms: D000714:Anastomosis, Surgical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D007422:Intestines / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000628:therapy*; D012086:Reoperation; D012307:Risk Factors