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The biofragmentable anastomosis ring in elective colon resections
M Valle1, F Biancari, A Caviglia
1Department of General Surgery, Flaiani I S. Camillo Hospital, Rome, Italy.
Methods:
Sixty-eight patients underwent elective colon resection and intraperitoneal anastomosis with the biofragmentable anastomosis ring (BAR).
Results:
Anastomotic dehiscence occurred in 3 patients (4.4%). Two of them had an end-to-end ileocolostomy using a 31 mm BAR. The anastomosis failure was due to ischaemic lesion of the small bowel close to the ileocolostomy, probably caused by a mismatch between the size of small bowel and that of the BAR. Another patient experienced anastomosis dehiscence probably due to a faecal impaction into the BAR. Forty-eight patients (70.5%) experienced troublesome constipation and evacuated after the sixth postoperative day. A bowel obstruction proximal to the BAR was documented in 4 cases who have been treated conservatively.
Conclusions:
The low rate of major complications justify the use of the BAR in elective colon surgery, but the surgeon must be aware of tedious postoperative obstructive episodes frequently encountered in this series.