Ileus conditions after rectal and Hartmann's resections

Bowel obstruction is one of the most common postoperative complications in pelvic surgery. In most cases, adhesive mechanical ileus of the small bowel is the cause. In procedures such as Hartmann's resection or abdominoperineal rectal resection, it seems that the large wound area on the pelvic walls and pelvic floor and the dead space after the removed rectum with mesorectum contribute to the ileus condition. The aim of this paper was to identify the risk factors for ileus after selected pelvic procedures and to map the possible ways of prevention and treatment of these complications.

We performed retrospective simple analysis of a set of 98 patients who underwent elective abdominoperineal resection of the rectum, pelvic exenteration or Hartmann's resection for rectal cancer between 2017-2022. Postoperative complications were recorded, especially bowel obstruction, and perineal wound or rectal stump healing complications. In all 9 patients, who needed reoperation, we searched for risk factors for ileus known from the literature. We also described the management of ileus.

In the group of 9 patients subjected to detailed analysis, 8 risk factors were most common: male gender, obesity, history of radiotherapy, open surgery, requirement of adhesiolysis in primary surgery, large blood loss, difficult dissection, and impaired healing of the rectal stump/perineum. A total of 8 (88.9%) patients had a combination of 4 or more of the mentioned risk factors.

Our results confirm the impact of risk factors known from the literature; furthermore, they indicate a connection with the formation of a dead space in the pelvis and with complications of the rectal stump or perineal wound healing. Some of the risk factors cannot be changed, and current preventive measures cannot completely prevent the formation of adhesions. It is therefore advisable to look for other materials and methods that would ideally limit the formation of adhesions and at the same time fill the dead space and thus separate it from the perineal wound.