Indications for laparotomies in Bujumbura, Burundi

This is a retrospective study of 613 laparotomy cases collected over a 2-year period from January 2016 to December 2017 in two hospitals in Bujumbura namely CHUK and HMK. Laparotomy represents 19.98% of soft surgery and 14.60% of the overall surgical activity. The average age of our patients is 32.94 years with extremes ranging from 2 days to 86 years. The most represented age group is 30-40 years with 23.82%. The male sex is the most concerned with a sex ratio of 1.25/1. The majority of patients (42.58%) are farmers. Bujumbura Mairie is the most represented with 32.95%. About 2/3 of our patients were operated on at the CHUK. The most frequent reason for consultation was abdominal pain + vomiting + AMG + abdominal bloating with 18.43% of cases. Ultrasound was the most requested morphological examination with 62.15%. The median incision was the most used approach with 72.43% of cases. 359 (58.56%) laparotomies were performed in emergency compared to 254 cases (41.44%) in program.