Acute intestinal obstruction: etiology and treatment

Objective To explore the etiology and treatment of acute intestinal obstruction. Methods Clinical data of patients who underwent operation for acute intestinal obstruction in Zhongshan Hospital from May 2012 to May 2017 were collected and retrospectively analyzed. Results 721 patients were included and the ratio of males to females was 1.55: 1. There were 48.8% in old-aged group and 51.1% in young-middle-aged group. The most common causes of ileus included tumor in 376 cases (51.5%) , adhesion in 168 cases (23.3%) , hernia in 70 cases (9.7%) , intraluminal obstruction in 42 cases (5.8%) and others in 79 cases. There was a significant difference between incarcerated hernia in elderly group and middle-young-aged group (4.6% vs. 15.1%, χ2 = 22.4, P 0.05 ] . Conclusion Tumor and adhesion are the main causes of acute intestinal obstruction. Neoplastic bowel obstruction from small intestine or proximal colon requires emergency surgery. Key words: Intestinal obstruction; Intestinal neoplasms; Emergency treatment; Stents