Causes, management outcome, and associated factors in patients admitted with a diagnosis of intestinal obstruction to Ambo University Referral Hospital: a 3-year retrospective chart review

Background: Intestinal obstruction is a major cause of surgical admissions in African countries. In this study, we assessed the causes, management outcome and associated factors among patients admitted with the diagnosis of intestinal obstruction to AURH. Methods: A retrospective chart review was conducted on all patients admitted to AURH with the diagnosis of intestinal obstruction from September 2017G.C. to August 2020G.C. Results: Sigmoid volvulus and Adhesions were the most common causes of large bowel obstruction and small bowel obstruction, respectively accounting for 85.4% and 37.3% of cases. 203(69.3%) patients were managed operatively among which 70(23.9%) had unfavorable outcome. The mortality rate of intestinal obstruction in our study population was 5.5%. Factors which had significant association with management outcome were length of hospital stay, history of abdominal surgery and history of intestinal obstruction. Conclusion: The most common causes of intestinal obstruction in our study population were similar to the one’s implicated in other studies done in the low-income countries. There is relatively high rate of unfavorable outcome which calls for further investigation as to why this is occurring. We recommend also interventions to be implemented to reduce the causes of morbidity and mortality related to intestinal obstruction found in this study. Keywords: Intestinal obstruction; management outcome; causes of intestinal obstruction.