[Retrosternal coloplasties: contribution of postoperative mesenteric arteriography]

Postoperative mesenteric angiograms were obtained after substernal coloplasty (SC) in fifteen patients, 8 male and 7 female, aged from 18 to 61 yrs old (mean = 34 yrs old). The aim of this study was to determine whether: 1) vascularization as assessed by angiography was correlated with the occurrence of cervical complications (fistulae and/or stenosis), 2) postoperative arteriography was of any practical value in this situation. Images obtained were classified into 3 groups according to the quality of vascular visualization. Clinical results were also classified into 3 groups according to whether no, one or two cervical complications were present, respectively. Angiographic and clinical results were concordant in 8 cases and discordant in 7. No definite relationship between the quality of coloplasty vascularization and the quality of clinical outcome was found in this study, but results suggest that retromanubrium compression might play a major role in outcome as visualization of colonic vascularization was obtained in only 9 of 15 cases. When clinical results are poor, characteristic images of ischemia may help in determining the indication for reoperation.