Secondary peritonitis natural history

With treatment, patients usually do well. Without treatment, the outcome is usually poor. However, in some cases, patients do poorly even with prompt and appropriate treatment.

With treatment, patients usually do well. Without treatment, the outcome is usually poor. However, in some cases, patients do poorly even with prompt and appropriate treatment.

• With the progression of infection, septicaemia ensues with its classic symptoms and signs. Septicaemia and shock are associated with very bad prognosis.

• With the progression of shock, blood supply to the brain might be compromised leading to altered mental status. Associated comorbidities and poor general status make the development of altered mental status more likely.

• Peritoneal inflammation can be complicated with paralytic ileus. Paralytic ileus is a very poor prognostic sign with increased mortality rate.

• Diarrhea occurs due to peritoneal inflammation and secondary irritation of the intestines.

• Shock and septicemia can develop into renal failure. Renal failure can be reversible if proper management is done at timeproper .

Peritonitis is a frequent cause of morbidity.The prognosis greatly depends on the degree of intra-abdominal contamination, the severity of underlying disease, the immune response of the host and associated organ dysfunction.^[1] Associated mortality rates vary from less than 1% to more than 60% Factors affecting prognosis are:

• Age
• Blood pressure
• Cause of infection
• Site of origin of peritonitis
• Number of organs involved in multi-organ-failure (MOF)
• Pre-operative organ failure
• Presence of metabolic acidosis
• Serum albumin
• New York Heart Association cardiac function status
• Malnutrition
• Malignoma
• Fecal peritonitis
• Immunosuppression

The prognosis risk of peritonitis may be stratified using the Mannheim’s Peritoneal index score (MPI) as shown below:^[2][3]

• For a score of 27, the sensitivity was 66.67%, specificity was 100%, and positive predictive value for mortality is 100% at an accuracy of 94%.^[2]

Factors that were found to be independently significant factors in predicting the mortality:

• Duration of pain for >24 h
• Organ failure on admission
• Female sex and
• Feculent exudate
• Early prognostic evaluation of abdominal sepsis is useful in the assessment of the severity of the disease and to select high-risk patients for early surgical reintervention.