Background:

Peritonitis is one of the most common surgical emergencies all over the world and isassociated with signicant complications and mortality. The spectrum of aetiology of peritonitis differsbetween high income countries and low income countries. Majority of the patients present late withpurulent peritonitis and septiceamia. Surgical treatment of peritonitis is highly demanding and verycomplex, however, if the outcome in these patients can be correctly predicted, then better managementcan be instituted in order to achieve optimal patients’ care and hence improve treatment outcome.

Methods:

Prospective cohort hospital based study was conducted among patients admitted due toperitonitis at Kilimanjaro Christian medical center (KCMC) from October 2018 to March2019.Documentary review and interview methods were employed to obtain data using electronicstructured questionnaire. Data was summarized using median, Inter-quartile range (IQR), frequency and percentage. Both bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify prognostic indicators for post-operative complications and mortality.  A 95% CI and P <0.05 used for signicance test.

Results:

The study enrolled 70 patients with predominance of male, giving a male to female ratio of 4.1:1.A total number of 33(47.1%) developed complications and 16(22.9%) died. Only 1(1.43%) patientpresented to the hospital within 24 hours since the onset of illness. Delay in care, longer duration ofoperation, and low potassium were the prognostic indicators noted to have inuence on short termcomplications. The major inuence for mortality were comorbidity (AOR=3.02; 95%CI: 2.25-42.90) andpostoperative complications (dyselectrolaemia) with (AOR=9.27; 95%CI: 1.21-70.83).

Conclusion:

Mortality and complications resulted from peritonitis is unacceptably high. Delay in care,longer duration of operation and preoperative low serum potassium levels were the prognostic indicatorsfor the post-operative complications. Comorbidity and postoperative complications such asdyselectrolaemia had inuence for the mortality. Correct prediction of these adverse outcomes will help toinstitute better management for the patients with peritonitis.