A Study of Abdominal Wound Dehiscence in Adults- Etiology and Its Management

Background: Abdominal wound dehiscence (AWD) is a severe postoperative complication associated with high mortality and morbidity. Prolonged hospital stay, high incidence of incisional hernia, and subsequent reoperations underline the severity of this complication. The goal of the underlying study was to evaluate possible risk factors for abdominal wound dehiscence and its management. Methods: This clinical study included post operative AWD between 15 january 2015 to 15 july 2016 in the department of general surgery at Dayanand Medical College & Hospital. The subjects were followed after laparotomy till their wound healed or abdominal wound dehiscence occurred. After taking informed consent complete record of all the patients were maintained and kept confidential. Results: The present study showed the incidence of AWD was 6.23% and majority of patients belonged to age group between 21-30 years. 68.3% patients who had AWD were having hypoproteinemia, majority of patients were anemic (63.4%) and 43.9% patients having underlying perforation peritonitis as a primary cause of exploratory laparotomy. There was higher incidence of AWD between 6th to 8th post operative days. 24.4% patients were managed conservatively by means of regular dressing for AWD and 7.3% patients who were high risk candidate for re-do-surgery bagota bag was applied. Conclusion: We concluded that incidence of abdominal wound dehiscence was 6.23% in our study. Hence, patients with various risk factors such as hyperbilirubinemia, hypoproteinaemia, anaemia and operative risk factor require more attention and special care to minimize the risk of occurrence.