Background: Protocols for bowel management have been used adequately among postoperative patients to maintain the normal GIT function and prevention of ileus among critically ill patients.
Objectives: Evaluating the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of medical students about paralytic ileus after colon surgery at Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).
Methods: It is a randomized cross sectional study that was conducted during the period from March 2018 to June 2018, at Saudi Arabia among 320 medical students at the 5 thacademicyear.The study was based on a questionnaire sheet with an interview that included questions about knowledge, attitude and practice pattern of the students about paralytic ileus after surgery.
Results: The study included 320 medical students from different universities at the stage of fifth academic year. All of the included subjects had good knowledge about the definition of ileus, its symptoms and the initial treatment with intravenous fluids. Most of them have adequate knowledge about effect of epidural anesthesia on the duration of ileus (82.5%), the complications of ileus (67.5%), the paralysis of the bowel (86.3%) and the diagnostic importance of CT (87.8%). The attitude of most of the participants was good toward the importance of good nursing and efficient doctors to overcome the risks of postoperative ileus, the efficiency of bowel protocols and increasing the knowledge of the staff is adequate for prevention of ileus. The practice pattern was found to be adequate among the majority of participants as 81 % would take care while using analgesics and sedatives and 90% would encourage movement of patient when possible. All of the subjects had adequate practice toward managing dietary nutrition, constipation and diarrhea.
Conclusion: The level of knowledge was adequate among most of the students which resulted in proper attitude and practicing pattern that encourage educating the health staff about ileus and how to be efficient in managing the bowel protocols.