Perforated typhoid enteritis: operative experience with 108 cases.

A retrospective review of 108 consecutive patients with perforated typhoid enteritis managed operatively over a 4-year period at Baptist Medical Centre, Ogbomoso, Nigeria is presented. There were 75 males and 33 females with an average age of 19.7 years. Presenting symptoms were fever, abdominal pain, vomiting, and either diarrhea or constipation. One hundred patients (93 percent) underwent debridement of the perforation and two-layer bowel closure. Postoperative morbidity included intraabdominal abscess, wound dehiscence, and subsequent bowel perforation. Most of the 35 deaths (32 percent mortality) were attributed to overwhelming sepsis which progressed despite aggressive operative management and antibiotic administration. The key to improved survival in this deadly disease lies not in a better operation or improved perioperative care but in the prevention of typhoid fever by providing safe drinking water and improved sanitation methods for all of the global community.