[The role of the surgeon in treating multiple organ failure].

Over the period 1990 through 1995, thirty-five patients with multiorgan insufficiency (MOI) undergo treatment. Abdominal operations are performed in all of them, except for one male patient aged 31 years, dying of bilateral pneumonia and metabolic disorders resulting from duodenal stenosis. Overall mortality rate amounts to 77 per cent (20 cases). Programmed peritoneal lavage (PPL) is done in seventeen patients with lethality 77 per cent (13 cases). In two instances iatrogenic damage to the spleen contribute to fatal septic complications development. All PPL treated patients with fatal outcome have bilateral pneumonia. MOI prevention is still closely linked to prophylaxis against the complications producing it. Programmed peritoneal lavage in immunocompromised and malnourished patients is a risk factor equally serious as the septic noxa being attacked, and what is more it runs the risk of inflicting additional iatrogenic noxae. General endotracheal anesthesia in PPL is likewise a factor demanding further clarification.