Providing surgical care for rectal wounds
Authors:   1602 EKG, Rostov-on-Don, Kim I.Yu. , Panov V.V. ,   1602 EKG, Rostov-on-Don, Musailov V.A. ,   NMIC VMT named after A.A. Vishnevsky, Krasnogorsk,   Branch of the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution «VMEDA named after S.M. Kirov», Moscow, Sychev D.A. ,   1602 EKG, Rostov-on-Don, Abdurakhmanov R.F. ,   Branch of the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution «VMEDA named after S.M. Kirov», Moscow
Published: December 2024

Introduction. Over the past decades, due to the constant conduct of local wars and armed conflicts, gunshot fragmentation and mine explosion wounds have become dominant in injury surgery. Modern combat gunshot injury is characterized by combined and multiple injuries of various anatomical areas, a high frequency of purulent-septic complications, persistent disability and high mortality. Despite the improvement of modern means of armor protection, there is no tendency to decrease the category of penetrating pelvic wounds with damage to the rectum, which can be attributed to extremely severe both in the course of the pathological process and difficult to diagnose, which requires further study of this pathology.

Objective: to study the frequency and localization of rectal wounds, features of diagnosis and treatment at the stage of providing qualified surgical care, options and sequence of surgical interventions, early complications.

Materials and methods: a prospective analysis of the provision of surgical care for rectal wounds to patients admitted to advanced medical organizations and to the surgical hospital of FGKU “1602 EKG” of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation from the area of a Special military operation was carried out. At the same time, medical documentation was studied, including primary medical records, protocols of performed surgical interventions of previous stages of medical care. The analyzed group of wounded belongs to the same age group, with the same conditions of military service, life and nutrition, which increases the representativeness of the results obtained.

Results: The rectal injury Scale (AAST) was used in the work. The degree of injury was determined either based on the data from the protocols of surgical interventions of previous stages of medical care, or intraoperatively when performing programmatic relaparotomies. The vast majority of the wounded (86.4%) were admitted to the stage of providing qualified medical care in the first day from the moment of injury. The proportion of shrapnel wounds (88.2%) prevailed over bullet wounds (11.8%). In the absolute majority of cases, the localization of the inlet was located in the gluteal region (61.7%). The multiple nature of the injuries, combined with injuries to other organs and systems, was recorded in 87.6% with intraperitoneal injuries, in 85.5% with extraperitoneal localization. At the same time, damage to the small intestine (23.1%) and pelvic bones (19.0%) was most often noted in combination with injury to the intraperitoneal rectum, colon (15.2%), with extraperitoneal localization, respectively, the bladder (54.1%), pelvic bones (27.3%). The tactics of simultaneous surgical treatment were used everywhere in 48.3%, and multi–stage surgical treatment in 51.7%. In the surgical treatment of rectal wounds of both localizations, in 92.0% of cases, the formation of an unloading stoma was performed. In 8.0% of cases, the discharge stoma did not form, the operation ended with suturing of the rectal wound. In 0.8% of cases, the failure of the distal stump of the rectum was noted, in 3.4% — the development of intrathase phlegmon. There have been cases of late diagnosis of isolated rectal wounds of extraperitoneal localization, due to poor clinical data, short periods of stay at the stages of medical evacuation. In 1.7% of cases, the onset of death was noted against the background of progression of intrathase phlegmon, sepsis, and multiple organ failure.

Conclusion: rectal wounds, especially those of extraperitoneal localization, occupy not a leading, but an important place in the structure of combat surgical trauma. Timely detection of damage to the rectum, determination of optimal surgical tactics, allows you to avoid or reduce the risk of purulent septic complications. The main tactical tasks for rectal wounds should be considered: stopping passage through the rectum, washing the distal colon, draining the cellular spaces of the pelvis in case of extraperitoneal injuries.