Operative and long-term results after one-stage surgery for obstructing colonic cancer

Background/Aims: To analyze retrospectively the operative results and five-year survival after single-stage resection and primary anastomosis for right- or left-sided colonic malignant obstruction. Methodology: From 1994 to 2002, 83 patients with acute obstruction due to primary cancer underwent a one-stage procedure, 36 (43.3%) for cancer of the right and 47 (56.7%) of the left colon. Of the 47 patients with left acute obstruction, 45 were treated with intraoperative colonic on-table lavage for decompression and wash-out before resection and anastomosis. Long-term survival was compared with the outcome of 369 patients with colonic cancer without obstruction 144 (39%) right and 225 (61%) left. Results: Overall operative morbidity and mortality were 25.3% and 6%, respectively. Overall anastomotic leakage rate was 6%. Kaplan-Meier curves showed five-year survival rates poorer for patients operated on for obstructing malignancy than those observed for patients without obstruction (p=0.0001, Log-Rank test), obstructing malignancy was associated with more advanced age (p < 0.0005) and staging of the cancer. Conclusions: One-stage resection and primary anastomosis can be applied to the majority of patients with malignant colonic obstruction and it allows achieving excellent operative results. Obstructing colonic cancer proved to be associated to a worse long-term survival.