Minireviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Surg. Apr 27, 2021; 13(4): 330-339
Published online Apr 27, 2021. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v13.i4.330
Abdominal compartment syndrome among surgical patients
Monica Leon, Luis Chavez, Salim Surani
Monica Leon, Department of Medicine, Centro Medico ABC, Ciudad de Mexico 01120, Mexico
Luis Chavez, Department of Medicine, University of Texas, El Paso, TX 79905, United States
Salim Surani, Department of Medicine, Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, TX 78405, United States
Author contributions: Leon M and Chavez L have been involved in literature search, writing, and revision; Surani S has been involved in idea, writing and revision of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict-of-interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Salim Surani, FACC, FACP, FCCP, MD, Professor, Department of Medicine, Texas A&M University, 701 Ayers Street, Corpus Christi, TX 78405, United States. srsurani@hotmail.com
Received: January 12, 2021
Peer-review started: January 12, 2021
First decision: February 14, 2021
Revised: February 25, 2021
Accepted: March 22, 2021
Article in press: March 22, 2021
Published online: April 27, 2021
Core Tip

Core Tip: Abdominal compartment syndrome (ACS) is a complication of several surgical and medical conditions that increase the intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) and cause organ hypoperfusion. Diagnosis is made by adequately measuring IAP and identifying the presence of intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH) with secondary organ dysfunction. IAH may progress to ACS when blood flow to multiple organs is compromised. Medical management aiming to decrease IAP should be started promptly to improve outcomes. Signs of organ hypoperfusion or evident organ failure warrants a rapid surgical evaluation for abdominal decompression. Close monitoring and rapid interventions are the key to improve the outcome in this complex condition.