Abdominal complications following open-heart surgery: a report of 12 cases and review of the literature.

Introduction: Abdominal complications following open-heart surgery remain serious events as the mortality is reported to be tremendously high. The clinical presentation, the diagnostic strategy and the therapeutic management varies. We reviewed all records of those patients who developed abdominal complications with surgical consequences during the last five years, recorded a complete follow-up and compared the findings to a current view of the literature.