Chronic radiation enteritis: a community hospital experience

A retrospective study was undertaken to evaluate the operative management of patients with chronic radiation enteropathy. Thirty-eight affected patients from 1974 to 1986 were reviewed. Patients with recurrent cancer responsible for symptoms were excluded. Seventy-one percent of patients presented with bowel obstruction. Twenty-one patients were treated with bowel resection, while 17 were treated with a bypass procedure or diverting ostomy alone. Overall morbidity was 45%, and postoperative mortality was 16%. Patients in the bypass group were significantly older than those in the resection group (70.3 vs. 55.5 years, P = .024), suggesting that age may have been a determinant of the procedure performed. In our study there was no difference in outcome based on preexisting vascular disease, tumor site, type of procedure performed, or radiation dose. We conclude that resection is the procedure of choice in cases of chronic radiation enteritis requiring surgery except in cases with dense adhesions when enteroenterostomal bypass is a viable alternative.