[Bowel resections in cancers of the ovary ]

The authors report a retrospective series of 32 patients who were operated on by resection of bowel at various stages during the progress of epithelial pathology of malignant ovaries. These operations were carried out in one group during the initial operation, in a second group during a "second-look" operation and in a third group when late recurrences had occurred. Removal of bowel was possible to remove completely or to optimum effect malignant cell bearing areas in 22 cases (59%) and less than optimal reductions in 15 cases (41%). Forty-five different segments of bowel were resected consisting of 18 of the rectum and sigmoid, 11 of the right side of the colon, 9 transverse or left colon, and 5 of the small intestine and 2 of the stomach. One patient died from cardio-respiratory failure immediately after the operation. Seven cases had septic abdominal complications but they settled quickly without further surgery. It was not possible on studying the follow-up of these patients to find any statistically significant improvement in those who had complete or optimum resection as compared with those who were less completely operated on, and those who were operated on in a late stage of the illness. All the same even if it is not possible to show that there is a significant improvement in survival in the populations that have been compared in this study, it does seem advisable to practice bowel resection in order to reduce as much as possible cancer bearing cells so that chemotherapy can be applied more effectively and thus improve the prognosis.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)