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Adhesion-Related Bowel Obstruction After Hysterectomy for Benign Conditions

From the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the occurrence of small bowel obstruction after hysterectomy.

METHODS: Analysis of 326 cases of women who were admitted with a diagnosis of small bowel obstruction during the period 1998–2005. Among cases with small bowel obstruction after hysterectomy for benign conditions, we evaluated the type and technique of hysterectomy and whether the parietal peritoneum was sutured at the completion of the procedure.

RESULTS: The main causes of bowel obstruction were intra-abdominal adhesions (41.9%) and abdominal malignancy (40.1%). After excluding oncologic cases, we found that, of 135 cases of adhesion-related small bowel obstruction, gynecologic operations played the largest role in the occurrence of bowel obstruction (n=68, 50.4%). Among all gynecologic operations for benign conditions, total abdominal hysterectomy (TAH) was the most common cause of small bowel obstruction (13.6 per 1,000 TAHs). We did not encounter small bowel obstruction after laparoscopic supracervical hysterectomy. The reduction in absolute risk of small bowel obstruction from TAH to laparoscopic supracervical hysterectomy is 13.6 per 1,000 cases; 73 patients would undergo laparoscopic supracervical hysterectomy to prevent one small bowel obstruction.

The median interval between TAH and small bowel obstruction was 4 years. The adhesions were adherent to the previous laparotomy incision in 27 cases (75%) and to the vaginal vault in nine cases (25%). Peritoneal closure was not associated with small bowel obstruction.

CONCLUSION: Hysterectomy plays a major role in the occurrence of adhesion-related small bowel obstruction. Closure of the parietal peritoneum does not contribute to the occurrence of adhesion-related small bowel obstruction, and small bowel obstruction rarely occurs after laparoscopic supracervical hysterectomy.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II-3