[Synchronous carcinomas of the large intestine]

The incidence of synchronous carcinoma of the colon and rectum is rising and ranges from 0.6 to 11% in the international literature. We present a study on 410 patients with colorectal cancer; 10 patients (2.4%) had synchronous carcinoma. The group of patients with synchronous carcinomas were older than the group with nonsynchronous carcinomas (70.5 versus 67.4 years). The choice of surgery depended on the involved portions of the colon and the distance between the lesions. For tumoral sites in 2 different segments was performed subtotal colectomy, in the other cases (cancers located on one segment) was performed segmental colectomy. The incidence of synchronous tumors is sufficiently high to suggest that the preoperative identification of lesions by either colonoscopy is important for the proper treatment of patients with carcinoma of the colon and rectum and moreover an so high incidence, more the risk of not recognising the disease, especially in the case of small lesions, emphasizes the importance of postoperative endoscopic and clinical controls.