Prevalence and Factors Associated with Anastomotic Leakage Among Patients Undergoing Bowel Resection and Anastomosis

Purpose: This study aimed at giving evidence on prevalence and factors associated with anastomotic leakage among patients undergoing bowel resection and anastomosis at Bugando Medical Centre (BMC) and Sekou Toure Regional Referral Hospital (SRRH). Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional analytical study was used involving patients undergoing bowel resection and anastomosis at Bugando Medical Centre and Sekotoure regional referral hospital over a four-month period from March 2017 to June 2017 inclusive. Findings: Eight out of 144 patients (5.6%) developed anastomotic leakage. The common indication for surgery was sigmoid volvulus, the common performed anastomosis was ileo-ileo end to end, and double layer continuous anastomotic suture was the common method of anastomosis Anemia (0.012), presence of premorbid illnesses (p=0.003), American association for anesthesia (ASA) greater than II (p=0.001), intraoperative contamination/sepsis (p< 0.001), low ranked operator (p=0.046), prolonged duration of operation (p=0.001), and delayed passage of stool and flatus (p=0.001) were found to be variables associated with anastomotic leakage among study participants. Anastomotic leakage in our setting occurs in approximately 5.6% of patients operated. Several factors such as high American society for Anesthesiologist above III, premorbid condition such as uncontrolled Diabetes Mellitus, intraoperative contamination/sepsis, low ranked operator, prolonged duration of operation above 3 hours and prolonged ileus were among factors that the present study found to be associated with high risk of anastomotic leakage.