Sex Differences in Non-strangulated Postoperative Adhesive Small Bowel Obstruction: A Retrospective Cohort Study
Abstract Background: Adhesive small bowel obstruction (ASBO) is one of the major causes of postoperative morbidity. Conservative treatment is generally applied to non-strangulated ASBO. Several factors have been reported to affect the response to conservative treatment in patients with ASBO. However, the association between sex differences and non-strangulated ASBO remains unclear. This study aimed to elucidate the effect of sex differences in non-strangulated postoperative ASBO.Methods: We divided 192 admissions of 99 patients with non-strangulated postoperative ASBO into two groups: the male group (n = 137) and female group (n = 55). Clinical features and prognosis were compared between the two groups.Results: Female patients had significantly poorer performance status (p < 0.001) and lower proportions of esophageal/gastric malignancies (p = 0.002), colorectal malignancies (p = 0.034), and history of ASBO (p = 0.028) than male patients. More female patients failed conservative treatment (p = 0.036) than male patients. Hospital length of stay (LOS) was longer (p = 0.002) in the female group than in the male group. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that female sex was associated with increased odds of requiring elective surgery (odds ratio 2.381, p = 0.040). The Cox proportional hazards regression model revealed that female sex was an independent predictor of hospital discharge (hazard ratio 0.651, p = 0.015).Conclusion: Female sex adversely affected the response to conservative treatment and LOS in patients with non-strangulated postoperative ASBO.