[Characteristics of the course of peritonitis in oncological patients]

Among 16 patients admitted into the Volynsk oncological dispensary with far-advanced tumors of the stomach and colon, the tumor perforation was recognized prior to surgery only in a half of the cases. Despite marked local proliferation and distant metastases there may be a pronounced pain syndrome. The absence of parallelism between the moment of intestinal content getting into the abdominal cavity and the protective reaction of the anterior abdominal wall musculature was characteristic of these patients. While the symptoms of peritoneal irritation in perforated gastric cancer can be recognized within the period up to 2 hours, the perforation of rectal cancer is frequently not accompanied with peritoneal signs. Among gastric cancer patients the perforation was diagnosed within 6 hours in six cases. The time of recognition of perforated cancer of the transverse colon and rectum was 15--16 hours.