Obstructive colonic cancer

Abstract

The clinical courses of 68 patients with obstructive colonic cancers were reviewed. For the majority of patients with an acutely obstructing cancer of the left colon a conventional staged procedure remains the most appropriate treatment. Primary resection is suitable for the more proximal colonic cancer with obstruction. The operative mortality rate was 13.6%, but with the addition of 2 nonoperative deaths, the figure rises to 16.2%. Only 6 patients are known to have survived 5 yr.