Abstract
Objective: To find out our incidence of complications of stoma surgery and identify variables that predict outcome. Design: Retrospective study. Setting: Teaching hospital, Scotland. Subjects: All 121 patients who had 126 stomas constructed during 1996. Interventions: Follow up until the end of 1999. Main outcome measures: Morbidity and mortality. Results: There were 64 men and 57 women, median age 58 years, range 16-83. Forty-three stomas were constructed for malignancy (34%). Forty-two stomas were raised during emergency operations (33%). Colorectal surgeons created 96 stomas (76%). Sixty-one of 92 potentially reversible stomas were closed (66%). Two patients died (2%) perioperatively. Overall stoma-related morbidity was 68% (n = 85). The rate of major stoma-related complications was 26% (n = 33). Nine major complications resulted in a reoperation rate of 7%. On univariate analysis, age, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) grade, and surgeon's speciality were significant predictive variables of major stomal complications (p