Primary resection with colocolostomy for obstructive carcinoma of the left side of the colon

Between 1970 and 1982, 147 patients were operated on for obstructing carcinoma of the colon at our institution. Of these, 25 patients with obstructing carcinoma of the left side of the colon were treated by emergency primary resection with colocolostomy. Three patients who had primary resection died postoperatively, two of them from myocardial infarction and one, a 66 year old patient with liver metastasis, from sepsis. One patient had an anastomotic leak and underwent a proximal diverting colostomy. Results of this form of treatment have been good, and we advocate the procedure for selected groups of patients.