Abstract
Emergency resections of obstructing colorectal carcinomas usually involve only limited rather than radical lymphadenectomy, which may contribute to the poor long-term survival of these patients. Thirty patients with ileus due to colorectal cancer have been included in a prospective follow-up study since January 1995. Seventeen of these underwent potentially curative resections with radical locoregional lymphadenectomy according to current standards of elective oncological surgery; 2 had radical right and 15 had radical left hemicolectomies. Postoperative morbidity was 18%. An 89-year-old patient died following postoperative bleeding from the colostomy site. During the same period, 13 patients with a metastasizing colorectal carcinoma underwent palliative emergency surgery with a resection rate of only 38%. Morbidity and mortality were 69% and 46%, respectively. These results suggest that emergency radical resections can be safely performed in the majority of patients with obstructing colorectal cancer without increasing the complication rate.
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Accepted: 15 September 1998
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Kruschewski, M., Runkel, N. & Buhr, H. Radical resection in obstructing colorectal carcinomas. Int J Colorect Dis 13, 247–250 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/s003840050170
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s003840050170