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 & 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.methods: 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% in cirrhotic patients compared to non-cirrhotic patients 5%. 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.