DOI: 10.36347/sasjs

Pages: 229-232

Abdominal surgical emergencies are a public health problem. This study aimed to investigate the epidemiological aspects of abdominal surgical emergencies, the different types and their causes. It has been achieved in northern Benin in the general surgery departments of the teaching hospital of Parakou and Boko district hospital. It was a transversal and descriptive study with a prospective data collection from April 20th to September 20th 2015. All patients whose diagnosis was confirmed at laparotomy were included in the study. In five months, 96 patients were admitted for abdominal surgical emergencies out of a total of 394 patients who had a surgical emergency, so 24.4%. The mean age of the patients was 29 ± 16.4 years and the sex ratio was 2.4. The mean elapsed time from the onset of the emergency to the arrival of the patient to the consultation was 5 days ± 6. Non-traumatic abdominal surgical emergencies accounted for 89.6% and the traumatic ones 10.4%. The most common disorders of Non-traumatic abdominal surgical emergencies were peritonitis (33.3%), incarcerated hernia (22.9%) and appendicitis (21.9%). For traumatic abdominal surgical emergencies, it was peritonitis due to intestinal perforation in 4 patients followed by hemoperitoneum due to hepatic wound or splenic rupture in 3 patients each one. Abdominal surgical emergencies are common in the surgery departments of the teaching hospital of Parakou and Boko district hospital dominated by non-traumatic ones, with peritonitis in the forefront.