Complications of typhoid fever requiring laparotomy during childhood

All the complications requiring laparotomy among 680 children who were diagnosed as having typhoid fever between 1981 and 1990, at Hacettepe University Children's Hospital, were retrospectively analyzed. Four patients developed intestinal perforation, two gastrointestinal bleeding, and two splenic abscess, with frequencies of 0.58%, 0.29%, and 0.29%, respectively. The overall frequency was 1.17%. While the risk was 1.58% among males, it was 0.42% among females with no statistically significant difference ( P > .05). The risk was higher among patients above 6 years of age ( P < .05). While perforation and hemorrhagic complications developed within 10 days of initial symptoms and splenic abscess required 10 and 30 days for development, there were no clinical signs and laboratory findings predicting the occurrence of complications in the course of typhoid fever. Two patients, one with intestinal perforation and the other with gastrointestinal hemorrhage, died within 2 days following the septic postoperative courses. On the other hand, 12 patients, among those without complications requiring laparotomy, died of unremitting septic course of the disease. The mortality rate rose from 1.78% to 25% when complications occurred. The findings in this series demonstrate that typhoid fever presents a challenge to the pediatric surgeons not only because of the complications requiring laparotomy with high mortality rates, but also the absence of criteria predicting the occurrence of complications in the course of typhoid fever.