Routine preoperative abdominal computed tomography in colon cancer: a utility study

There is no proven utility for preoperative scanning of intraperitoneal colonic cancer with computed tomography (CT). A prospective study was conducted where CT was preoperatively incorporated into the management algorithm to ascertain its role in patient treatment.

Thoraco-abdominal CT was performed in both the elective and emergency settings in an unselected group of 73 patients referred to a coloproctology unit established over the last 30 months at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Barbados. CT and operative findings were compared to determine the influence that the preoperative CT had on surgical decision making.

Unexpected additional pathology was found in 6.8% of patients. Sensitivity for the detection of visceral metastatic disease was 84.6%. Preoperative CT was deemed to be of clinical value in 24.7% of cases and to definitively alter surgical management in 13.7% of patients. These alterations in management included several types of multivisceral resections, the need for ureteric stenting or reimplantation, the utilization of stomas alone and the avoidance of resection in known metastatic disease.

Preoperative CT of intraperitoneal colonic cancer adds important technical information to the conduct of the surgery and alters therapy in a selected patient group.