Background: Intestinal obstruction is one of the most common surgical problems that affects the lives of millions of individuals and is a significant cause of surgical admissions worldwide. It also accounts for a great proportion of morbidity and mortality in African countries, including Ethiopia. The outcome of the management depends on different associated factors. Methods: A retrospective institution based crossectional study was conducted on all patients admitted to Ambo University Referral Hospital with the diagnosis of intestinal obstruction from September 2017G.C. to August 2020G.C. A structured data collection tool was used to collect all the necessary data from the patients’ medical records. Then the data collected was entered into EpiData version 3.1 and exported to and analyzed with SPSS version 23. Results: Among a total of 293 patients admitted to surgical ward with the diagnosis of Intestinal Obstruction in the study interval, SBO accounted for 54.3% (n=159), LBO 41.3% (n=121) and Compound obstructions 4.4% (n= 13) of cases. Sigmoid volvulus was the most common cause of LBO accounting for 85.4% of cases and Adhesive intestinal obstruction was the most common cause of SBO representing 37.3% of cases. 203 (69.3%) of the patients were managed with an operative procedure while the rest 90(30.7%) of them were managed conservatively. Of the operated cases, 70(23.9%) of the patients had unfavorable outcome. The most frequently observed complication was surgical site infection accounting 24(47.10%). The mortality rate of our study population was 5.5%. Factors with significant association with management outcome are length of hospital stay, previous history of abdominal surgery and previous history of obstruction. Conclusion: SBO was the most common cause of obstruction in this study. 1/3rd of the patients with intestinal obstruction in our study were managed conservatively while the rest had to be operated. The most common surgical procedure performed was Resection and Anastomosis. Among the operated cases 1/4th of the patients developed one or more post-operative complications. The most frequently observed complication was surgical site infection. A study should be conducted to assess the reason for the relatively high prevalence of SSI in our study population. Also, interventions should be implemented to reduce this cause of morbidity in the population.

Keywords: Intestinal Obstruction, Management Outcome, Causes of Intestinal Obstruction