The equine acute surgical abdomen - a retrospective review of 43 cases

Various reports in the literature have examined the survival rates for horse suffering of acute abdominal pain (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9). Postoperative ileus is accepted as a relatively common and potentially serious complication, which, in the horse, occurs predominantly after digestive surgery (1). The purpose of this review was to determine the demographic characteristic of horse with acute surgical abdomen, to compare our survival rates with literature references, to determine the incidence of postoperative complications, and to help us in producing a more realistic prognosis for the owners once a colic diagnosis was established and the clinician has decided the treatment.