II: Mild symptoms, good results. III: Moderate symptoms, easily controlled by medications. IV: Severe symptoms, requiring constant medication or re-operation Data

collection Data were collected using a preformed questionnaire. variables included in the questionnaire were; patient’s demographic data (age, sex), associated medical premorbid illness, duration of illness, previous history of PUD, NSAID use, alcohol use and cigarette smoking, HIV status, CD 4 count, timing of surgical treatment, site of perforation, size of perforation, type of surgical procedure, postoperative complication, length of hospital stay, Vadimezan mortality. The duration of symptoms was defined as the time span between the initial pain perception due to perforation and the operation. Statistical analysis The statistical analysis was performed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 15.0 for Windows

(SPSS, Chicago IL, U.S.A).The mean ± standard deviation (SD), median and ranges were calculated for continuous variables whereas proportions and frequency tables were used to summarize categorical variables. Continuous variables were categorized. Chi-square (χ2) test were used to test for the significance of association between the independent selleck chemical (predictor) and dependent (outcome) variables in the categorical variables. The level of significance was considered as P < 0.05. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine predictor variables that Carnitine palmitoyltransferase II predict the outcome. Ethical consideration Ethical approval to conduct the study was obtained from the WBUCHS/BMC joint institutional ethic review committee before the commencement of the study. Patients recruited prospectively were required to sign a written

informed consent for the study and for HIV testing. Results Out of 1124 patients who presented with peptic ulcer disease (PUD) during the study period, 96 patients underwent emergency laparotomy for perforated peptic ulcers. Of these, 8 patients were excluded from the study due to incomplete data and failure to meet the inclusion criteria. Thus, 84 patients were enrolled giving an average of 17 cases annually and represented 7.5% of cases. Of these, 18 (21.4%) patients were Selleckchem AZD1080 studied retrospectively and the remaining 66 (78.6%) patients were studied prospectively. Socio-demographic characteristics Forty-eight (57.1%) were males and females were 36 (42.9%) with a female ratio of 1.3:1. The patient’s age ranged from 12 to 72 years with a median of 32.4 years. The peak incidence was in the 4th decade (31-40 years). The majority of patients, 52 (61.9%) were younger than 40 years. Most of patients, 64 (76.2%) had either primary or no formal education and more than three quarter of them were unemployed. Clinical presentation The duration of symptoms ranged from 1 to 12 days with a mean duration of 6.5 ± 2.3days. The median was 5.8 days. 24 (28.6%) presented within twenty-four hours of onset of symptoms, 25 (29.8%) between 24 and 48 hours and 30 (35.