Spontaneous small bowel perforation. A rare cause of acute abdomen.

We performed a retrospective analysis on spontaneous perforations of small intestine, occurring in 35 patients. The average age on presentation was 57 years. At the time of operation, peritoneal involvement was already well advanced. In 16 (45.7%) patients, the lesion was oversewn and in 19 (54.3%) cases, resection was required. The difference in mortality between these two methods was statistically not significant