Morbidity of surgery in previously undiagnosed cirrhotic patients

Background: Undiagnosed cirrhotic patients are frequently encountered during routine and emergency surgery. These patients have a higher incidence of blood loss and wound infection, resulting in prolonged hospital stay. This study was conducted to highlight the possible complications which result in prolonged hospital stay in these patients. Method: A total of 38 patients were incidentally found to have cirrhosis out of a total of 1560 patients who underwent abdominal operation. Diagnosis was confirmed on per-operative liver biopsy and was suspected preoperatively in patient having abnormal liver function test. Per-operative bleeding, postoperative wound infection and hospital stay was compared in cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic patients. Results: The mean blood loss was 310 ml in cirrhotic patients as compared to 205 ml in non-cirrhotic patients which was statistically significant (p-value 0.008). Post-operative infection rate was 21 percentage in cirrhotic patients compared to non-cirrhotic patients 5 percentage. Significance was tested using Pearson Chi square test (0.042). The Average hospital stay was 10 days in cirrhotic patients and 7.5 days in non-cirrhotic patients respectively which was statistically significant (p-value 0.006). Conclusion: There is statistically significant difference in per-operative bleeding, wound infection and hospital stay in cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic patients. (author)