[Etiology of intestinal occlusion].

BACKGROUND

Intestinal obstruction is one of the leading causes of admission to emergency wards around the world, and its etiology has changed over the past century.

AIM: The goal of this study was to ascertain the causes of intestinal obstruction at our Institution and compare the results with other reports of Mexican, U.S., and Canadian hospitals.

METHODS

Retrospective review of a cohort of patients with intestinal obstruction operated on between 1985 and 2000. Demographic data and operative findings were obtained.

RESULTS

Our cohort included 452 patients, 55.3% were women; mean age for the entire group was 54 years. The obstruction was located in the small bowel in 86.9% of cases and the leading causes were adhesions (58.6%), hernia (16.1%) and neoplasia (13.9%). Other etiologic factors had a low incidence that varied between 4.4 and 0.22%.

CONCLUSIONS

The most common causes of intestinal obstruction are similar to those reported in the U.S., British and Canadian medical literature. Some tertiary-level Mexican institutions showed the same incidence of etiology, but some large general hospitals in Mexico City showed etiologic factors reported 100 years ago by the current so-called developed countries, i.e., that the same socioeconomic conditions existed in both population groups nearly a century apart.