Preoperative anemia and surgical outcomes following laparotomy in a resource-limited setting
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Laura N. Purcell; John Sincavage; Brittany Robinson; Vanessa Msosa; Chawezi Katete; Anthony G. Charles
- Source
- Am J Surg
- Subject
- Adult
Male
Malawi
medicine.medical_specialty
Anemia
medicine.medical_treatment
Article
Young Adult
03 medical and health sciences
symbols.namesake
Postoperative Complications
0302 clinical medicine
Laparotomy
medicine
Humans
Preoperative anemia
030212 general & internal medicine
Poisson regression
Retrospective Studies
business.industry
General Medicine
Middle Aged
medicine.disease
Comorbidity
Surgery
Hospitalization
030220 oncology & carcinogenesis
symbols
Female
Observational study
Preoperative hemoglobin
business
Limited resources
- Language
- ISSN
- 0002-9610
Introduction Anemia is a common and potentially modifiable condition in sub-Saharan Africa. We sought to determine the role of preoperative anemia on post laparotomy abdominal complications. Methods We conducted a six-month prospective, observational study of patients age >12 years following laparotomy at a tertiary hospital in Malawi. The outcome was the occurrence of abdominal complications. Poisson regression analyses estimated the risk of abdominal complications in patients with moderate/severe anemia. Results Of 280 patients, most were male (76.4%) with median age of 35 years (IQR 24–50). Abdominal complications developed in 34 patients (15.2%). Of the 224 patients with known preoperative hemoglobin 54 (20.7%) were moderately or severely anemic at the time of surgery. Patients with moderate-to-severe anemia had an increased risk of abdominal complications (RR 4.44, 95% CI 2.0–9.6). Conclusion Anemia is a common but modifiable comorbidity among laparotomy patients and independently increases the risk of abdominal complications.