ABSTRACT
During the period from 1995 until 2002, 400 cases of abdominal operations with prophylactic or obligatory corrugated rubber drains were reviewed to assess the intraperitoneal drain slippage. The diagnosis of a slipped drain into the abdomen was further confirmed by plain radiograph and/or ultrasound. In this series, seven prophylactic upper abdominal drains were slipped completely inside the abdomen on the second postoperative day. Another 14 cases were discovered on daily dressing to get partially sucked into the abdomen with a progressive disappearance of its external end. All the seven cases with total slippage were re-operated, as plain X-ray confirmed the diagnosis. The incompletely slipped drains were managed by daily shortening until the discharge became minimal. In this study, the complications of intraperitoneal drain slippage included sepsis, wound dehiscence and electrolyte imbalance. In such cases, the mortality rate was 28.6%. The direct causes of death were anesthetic injury and associated medical insult. The study also showed that mortality and morbidity were related to the delay in drain extraction