Background: Diabetic patients are a subset of emergency and general surgery patients and have a higher risk of postoperative complications including pulmonary and urinary infections, acute cardiac infarction, kidney failure, and death compared to non-diabetic patients.

Objectives: The study assessed the prevalence of postoperative complications in diabetic patients and non-diabetics in Saudi Arabia from 2016 to 2021.

Methodology: This was a community-based observational descriptive cross-sectional study. Sample is 205 diabetic and non-diabetic participants over 18 years underwent abdominal surgery between 2016 and 2021 in Saudi Arabia. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data.

Results: Regarding SSI, diabetic patients reported 27% wound erythema, 25% wound pain, and 24% wound pus. It was discovered that 34.1% of patients with poor wound healing,50% of individuals identified with DVT as a postoperative consequence,32.35% with UTI, 54.6% confirmed cases of post-operative incisional hernias, and 42.85% of patients with metabolic acidosis all of them were having diabetes millets. Regarding thrombophlebitis, 28.6% of patients with limb erythema and 21.1 percent of patients with hot and painful limbs were diabetics. Regarding bowel obstruction, only 23.68 percent of patients with acute stomach pain, 28 percent of patients with sudden vomiting, and 22.58 percent of patients with chronic constipation with gas retention had diabetes.

Conclusion: DVT, UTI, and incisional hernia have all been found to be more common post-operative problems among diabetics. There was a modest difference in wound healing, wound infection, intestinal obstruction, thrombophlebitis, and metabolic acidosis between diabetics and non-diabetics.

Asmaa Al Alwah