Prospective Multicenter Validation of a Severity Score of Strangulated Small Bowel Occlusion

• Proportion of patients with a score of 0-2 with successful conservative treatment [ Time Frame: 3 days ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  According to the score, patients will be managed either conservatively or surgically. Patients with a score of 0-2 will be treated conservatively. The success of the decision and the treatment will be evaluated after 3 days since admission. Indeed, patients with conservative treatment who do not retrieve a gastrointestinal transit after 3 days will be operated on.
  
  

• Proportion of patients with a score ≥3 needing small bowel resection [ Time Frame: 1 day ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  Patients with a score ≥3 will be emergently operated on with a surgical delay below 12 hours since admission. During surgery, segmental small bowel resection will be performed in case of ischemia or necrosis. The need of small bowel resection will be related to the pre-operative score.
  
  

Elaboration of the SBO score:

Intestinal ischaemia as a result of small bowel obstruction (SBO) requires prompt recognition and early intervention. A clinicoradiological score was sought to predict the risk of ischaemia in patients with SBO. A determined protocol for the assessment of patients presenting with SBO was used. A logistic regression model was applied to identify determinant variables and construct a clinical score that would predict ischaemia requiring resection. Of 233 successive patients with SBO, 138 required laparotomy of whom 45 underwent intestinal resection. In multivariable analysis, six variables correlated with small bowel resection and were given one point each towards the clinical score: history of pain lasting more than 4 days, guarding, C-reactive protein level at least 75 mg/l, leucocyte count over 10 G/l, free intraperitoneal fluid volume exceeding 500 ml on computed tomography (CT) and reduction of CT small bowel wall contrast enhancement. The risk of intestinal ischaemia was 6 per cent in patients with a score of 1 or less, whereas 21 of 29 patients with a score of three or more 3 underwent small bowel resection. A positive score of 3 or more had a sensitivity of 67.7 per cent and specificity 90.8 per cent; the area under the receiver operating characteristics curve was 0.87 (95 per cent confidence interval 0.79 to 0.95). By combining clinical, laboratory and radiological parameters, the clinical score allowed early identification of strangulated SBO.

The purpose of the present protocol is to apply the SBO score as a prospective multicenter study. After informed consent, SBO patients corresponding to the inclusion and exclusion criteria will be managed according to the score. Patients with a score of 0 to 2 will be treated conservatively, while a score ≥3 will imply emergency surgery. For its validation, the conservative and surgical outcomes will be compared with the results obtained for the elaboration of the score.