Surgical Management of Abdominal Trauma: Indications and Outcomes in Two Emergency Units with Limited Infrastructure Resources in Yaoundé (Cameroon)

Abstract

Introduction: Abdominal trauma is a major public health concern. Their management is controversial and difficult. Operative indications are not codified in all situations. Patients and Methods: This was a descriptive cross- sectional study over a period of 5 years, carried out in the surgical emergency department of the Central Hospital of Yaoundé and the Emergency Centre of Yaoundé. We reviewed retrospectively medical records of patients who had laparotomy after abdominal trauma. Results: We collected 115 files. There was a male predominance (83.47%) and the average age was 33.8 years. The average time to admission was 12.3 hours and the aetiologies were dominated by road traffic accidents (53%). Abdominal contusions represented 69.56% of cases and abdominal wounds 30.44% of cases. Indications for surgery were hemodynamic instability, evidence of a lesion of a hollow viscus, the presence of evisceration or a gunshot wound, and initial non-operative treatment failure. Postoperative morbidity was 9.56% and overall mortality was 3.47%. Conclusion: Surgical management of abdominal trauma is frequent in our setting, mainly indicated for hemodynamic instability. Results are good with a low morbi-mortality.