Management of perforated peptic ulcer in Al-Gamhouria teaching hospital, Aden

We aimed to explore and analyze the current status in management of patients with perforated peptic ulcers. The study was carried out at the surgical department of Al-Gamhouria Teaching Hospital, Aden-Yemen. Patients, admitted with perforated benign peptic ulcers, during the period January 1997 to December 2006, were retrospectively evaluated. The total number of enrolled patients was 156; 138 [88.46%] men and 18 [11.54%] women. Overall mean age was 39.08 years [range 14-75 years] and the higher frequency of PPU was in patients of age group 21-40 years [58.34%]. The PDU/PGU ratio was [4.38:1]. The mean time of presentation was 16.5 hours and of the operative intervention after admission was 525 hours. Simple perforation closure was used in [91.67%] of the patients. Postoperative complications rate was 41.03% [statistically significant in cases admitted later than 12 hours], wound sepsis making the majority-55.24%; died 6 patients [3.85%]-correlation with presentation time was not significant. The overall mean post-operative hospitalization period was 12.76 days; 14.74% of the patients stayed more than 3 weeks. Emphasis should be placed on shortening the time to surgery. Simple closure remains the selected treatment in the majority of patients. Improving the surgical skills, wound care, administrative regulations, hospital environment and equipments is needed to reduce the high rate of complications