Postoperative intra-abdominal and pelvic sepsis complicating ileal pouch-anal anastomosis

Abstract
In a series of 500 patients who underwent ileal pouch-anal anastomosis for ulcerative colitis or polyposis coli, significant intra-abdominal or pelvic sepsis developed in 30 (6%). Among the patients who did not require laparotomy because they responded to treatment with antibiotics or local drainage (surgical or radiologically guided) or both, no pouches were excised and the ileostomy closure rate (92%) was similar to that for the patients who did not have sepsis. The 17 patients whose sepsis did require laparotomy had a high rate of pouch excision (41%) (pp<0.0001). Factors identified as possibly associated with severe sepsis included female gender and ulcerative colitis complicated by toxicity or malignancy.