Background Complications are common after ostomy surgery. Data from the Berlin OStomy Study were evaluated to determine risk factors for complications. Patients and methods Patients with a bowel ostomy were questioned using a questionnaire concerning patients’ characteristics and history as well as the ostomy and its complications. The questionnaire also contained a nine‐fielded abdominal sketch to determine the exact ostomy location. Results Over 42 months, 2647 patients completed the questionnaire. Obese patients and patients after emergency surgery were more prone to ostomy‐related complications. This result was independent of the kind of ostomy (small bowel ostomy or colostomy) and of the abdominal location. The overall ostomy complication rate was 55.6%. Conclusion Significantly more complications were recorded after emergency surgery and in obese patients than after elective surgery and in non‐obese patients, respectively. There was no preferential abdominal location for avoiding general ostomy complications. The results emphasized the importance of preoperative ostomy site marking by qualified personnel such as ostomy nurses or surgeons to reduce complication rates by respecting individual abdominal configurations. With an increasing prevalence of obesity, ostomy surgery will become even more challenging in the future. A division of the abdominal wall into nine regions might be helpful and more precise for describing and examining ostomy‐related complications in the future.

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QoL differed significantly for CS and SBS patients, but the effect size was marginal. The care of certain patient groups, particularly (female) patients who receive emergency surgeries, must be improved. More professional education and guidance are necessary for a larger proportion of patients. This survey provided reference data for quality of life in patients with an ostomy.

Psychological interventions can improve Quality of Life (QoL). Object of interest was if different psychological interventions influence short‐term QoL after colonic resection for carcinoma. Furthermore, we wanted to see if there is a correlation between patients` preoperative affect and postoperative QoL. Sixty patients that underwent colorectal surgery were divided into three groups. Group one (n = 20) received Guided Imagery and group 2 (n = 22) Progressive Muscle Relaxation. The third group (Control, n = 18) had no intervention. Quality of Life (QoL) was measured using the EORTC QLQ‐C30 and the Gastrointestinal Quality of life Index (GIQLI). Patients' affect was measured by the PANAS questionnaire. The higher the preoperative Negative Affect was, the lower were the scores for QoL on the 30th postoperative day. Patients' QoL was highest preoperatively and lowest on the third postoperative day. On the 30th postoperative day scores for QoL were almost as high as preoperative without difference between the three groups. Neither Guided Imagery nor Progressive Relaxation was influencing short‐term QoL measured by the EORTC QLQ‐C30 and the GIQLI questionnaire after colorectal surgery for cancer. Screening patients' with the PANAS questionnaire might help to identify individuals that are more likely to have a worse QoL postoperatively.

There was poor agreement between the values of cardiac output estimation by transthoracic thermodilution and those by electrical velocimetry. Electrical velocimetry could not replace invasive monitoring in this trial.