[Emergency surgical treatment in cancer of the colon]

The diagnostic delay which accompanies the colon-rectum neoplastic desease makes that complications are often the first signal. This work means to prove, according to our experience, that the incidence of these complications is high and that only in a few patients undergoing emergency treatment is possible a one-stage procedure with radical purpose. In our survey, since Genuary 1975 to December 1993, 473 patients (255 males and 218 females) affected of colon-rectum cancer were treated: among these 54 (11.5%) underwent emergency surgery. The neoplasm was located: in the rectosigmoid junction in 25 cases (46.3%) in the caecum or in the right colon in 10 cases (18.6%), in the left colon and in the hepatic flexure in 6 cases (11.1%), in splenic flexure in 4 cases (7.4%), and in the trasversum colon in 3 cases (5.5%). According to Astler & Coller classification 22 patients (40.8%) were C2, 17 (31.5%) were D, 11 (20.4%) were B2, 3 (5.5%) were A, and only 1 patient (1.8%) was C1. 16 patients (29.7%) underwent a one-stage procedure, 8 (14.9%) had a first stage with a colostomy added together with resective procedure, and 3 (5.5%) patients had a Hartmann procedure. In 27 (50%) patients was possible only a palliative procedure. Finally, 10 patients (18.5%) had post-operative complications such as anastomotic fistula, wound's leakage or subphrenic abscess, and 11 patients (20.4%) died for cardiac insufficiency, ARDS, renal failure or cerebral stroke.