Age at Postoperative Obstruction (Complications)

Age distribution of a population that underwent surgery because of postoperative obstruction due to adhesions. X-axis: Age in years, y-axis: Number of cases. Postoperative obstruction also occurs in children. There are mostly infants (15 to 20 % of the total population); thereafter, a postoperative obstruction may occur in any age group. In every child of every age such a differential diagnosis must be considered in case of 'surgical abdomen', mainly if a laparotomy scar is recognizable, but also in hardly visible appendectomy scars because appendicitis is one of the most frequent causes of postoperative obstruction in childhood; namely, in 1 % following acute appendicitis and in up to 6 % after perforated appendicitis. In the pathogenesis of postoperative obstruction not only the type of intervention and its accuracy plays a role, but also the cause leading to surgery. The significance of laparoscopic intervention concerning postoperative obstruction is not yet sufficiently evaluated. A postoperative obstruction due to adhesions may be a complication of as well as a differential diagnosis of 'surgical abdomen', the latter mainly in younger children.