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Background: The aim of this study was to investigate factors that affect morbidity in adults with incarcerated intestinal hernia of the abdominal wall., Methods: 124 patients with a mean age of 61 ± 13.87 years (73 males) underwent emergency surgery for incarcerated intestinal hernia between March 1999 and March 2008. The median duration of the hernia was 5 years (0.1-30). Type and duration of hernia, accompanying diseases, surgical procedure, and operation-related complications were retrospectively evaluated., Results: Twenty-five patients (20%) had complications. Twelve patients (10%) had surgical site infection and 10 patients (8%) had septic complications. Four patients (3%) died in the postoperative period. Out of 40 patients developing strangulation, 18 underwent bowel resection. The only independent variable concerning bowel resection other than inguinal hernia was found to be ventral hernia (p=0.039). There was no statistical significance between duration of hernia and incarceration and complications. The rate of complications was significantly high in the patients with accompanying diseases (p<0.001). The relation between age and complications was also significant (p=0.034). Multivariate analyses showed high ASA scores as the only independent variable for development of complications (p<0.001)., Conclusion: Patients with comorbid diseases and high ASA scores should be informed about the elevated risk of complications, and scheduled surgery before the development of incarceration should be recommended.

Background: We aimed to investigate the use of drainage in surgery for perforated appendicitis and to determine its effect(s) on complications., Methods: Two-hundred and eight patients diagnosed with perforated appendicitis between May 1999 and January 2009 were retrospectively evaluated in terms of using drainage with respect to surgical infections and other complications and duration of hospital stay., Results: A total of 208 patients diagnosed with perforated appendicitis underwent surgery. The mean age of the patients was 41.05±16.30 years. Of the 208 patients, 128 (61.5%) were male. The median duration of complaints was 2 days (1-15 days). Drainage was applied in 83 patients (39.9%). The median duration of drainage was 3 days (1-7 days). Surgical infections, wound dehiscence, other complications, and re-hospitalization rates were significantly higher in patients with drainage. The mean time from appearance of complaints to surgery, the duration of hospitalization and antibiotic treatment were also longer in the drainage group (p=0.001 for all). A higher rate of the patients with an accompanying disease (39.8%-19.2%) and midline incision (20.5%-3.2%) and of the elderly patients had drainage. Multivariate analyses showed that using a drain independently affected surgical infections (p<0.001)., Conclusion: It can be concluded that using a drain after surgery for perforated appendicitis increases surgical infections and in turn the duration of hospital stay.