The Safety of Expectant Management for Adhesive Small Bowel Obstruction: A Systematic Review.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Surgical training has long been to "never let the sun set on a bowel obstruction" without an operation to rule out and/or treat compromised bowel. However, advances in diagnostics have called into question the appropriate timing of non-emergent operations and expectant management is increasingly used. We performed a systematic review to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of expectant management for adhesive small bowel obstruction (aSBO) compared to early, non-emergent operation.

Materials & methods

We queried PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane databases for studies (1990-present) comparing early, non-emergent operations and expectant management for aSBO (PROSPERO #CRD42017057676).

Results

Of 4873 studies, 29 cohort studies were included for full-text review.

SUBMITTER: Thornblade LW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6988581 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature