Background: Because of its association with high rates of illness and death, elevated intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) is a frequent occurrence in the critically sick. Since intra-vesical pressure (IVP) is easy to measure, it should be monitored in all patients who are thought to be at risk for serious increases in IAP.
Aim of study: To monitor IAP for the diagnosis and assess the risk factors for IAH and Abdominal compartment syndrome (ACS) and early treatment in post emergency laparotomy patients to prevent further organs damage.
Methods: A prospective study conducted in the surgical unit during a period of three years from the 1st of October 2022 to the 1st of November 2025. It included 142 adult patients with post emergency laparotomy done for them who were admitted to the surgical department including traumatic and non-traumatic cases. We measured the IVP for measuring IAP.
Result: In our study, postoperative IAP was elevated in 60.6% of patients (32.4% of them were in stage II IAH), 87.2% of patients with elevated IAP were treated medically, 8.1% were treated surgically, while 4.7% of them died. The highest prevalence of patients with postoperative IAH was seen significantly among males, obese patients, patients with traumatic chief complain, those who were hemodynamically unstable before operation, and patients with prolonged duration of surgery.
Conclusion: In this study, more than half of the patients developed postoperative IAH, with a small but clinically significant proportion progressing to ACS, highlighting the substantial burden of this potentially preventable complication. Most risk factors for IAH and ACS are prolonged duration of surgery, preoperative unstable hemodynamics, male gender, penetrating trauma, and obesity, so we should do serial IAP measurement in any patients who demonstrate risk factor for IAH and ACS to avoid their development with their subsequent lethal complications.