Samples of ileal serosa and mesenteric lymph nodes have been harvested before antibiotic administration during 46 non-contaminated operations for Crohn's disease and compared with 43 operations for conditions other than Crohn's. Potentially pathogenic bacteria were isolated from the serosa in 12 (27 per cent) Crohn's patients, compared with 6 (15 per cent) controls (P = 0.04). Intestinal bacteria were recovered from mesenteric nodes in 15 (33 per cent) Crohn's patients compared with 2 (5 per cent) controls (P = 0.006). These findings suggest that bacteria leak from the small bowel lumen in a high proportion of Crohn's disease patients. This may explain the pathogenesis of abscess and fistula in this disorder as well as the high rate of sepsis following elective surgery even in the absence of macroscopic contamination.

Laparoscopic surgery has already begun to influence the management of diverticular disease, but the randomized controlled trials needed to support therapy decisions are largely missing.

Details of 300 patients with complicated diverticular disease from 30 hospitals between 1985 and 1988 were entered into a national audit organized by the Surgical Research Society. Complications present on admission included acute phlegmon (n = 104), pericolic abscess (n = 34), purulent peritonitis (n = 40), large bowel obstruction (n = 31), faecal peritonitis (n = 23), pericolic abscess complicated by fistula (n = 28) and lower gastrointestinal bleeding (n = 40). The overall mortality rate was 11.3 per cent (acute phlegmon, 4 per cent; purulent peritonitis, 27 per cent; pericolic abscess, 12 per cent; faecal peritonitis, 48 per cent; large bowel obstruction, 6 per cent; bleeding, 2 per cent; fistula, 4 per cent). Acute phlegmon was treated without operation in 78 patients (75.0 per cent) and by resection in 24 (23.1 per cent). Management of purulent peritonitis generally involved Hartmann's procedure (62 per cent) or resection and primary anastomosis (15 per cent). Similarly, patients with pericolic abscess usually underwent Hartmann's procedure (38 per cent) or resection and primary anastomosis (35 per cent). The principal operation for faecal peritonitis was Hartmann's resection (83 per cent). Large bowel obstruction was managed conservatively in four patients (13 per cent), by Hartmann's procedure in nine (29 per cent), and by resection and primary anastomosis with or without a proximal stoma in 13 (42 per cent). Most patients (82 per cent) with fistula associated with an abscess were managed by resection and primary anastomosis; 90 per cent with acute gastrointestinal bleeding were treated without operation.

No abstract

One hundred sixty-five cases of abdominal rectopexy using polypropylene (Marlex) mesh for rectal prolapse were reviewed. Six patients were men and 159 were women. Thirty patients have not been evaluated after surgery, 22 having died of interrecurrent disease and 8 have had their surgery during the last two months. Incontinence was observed in 95 patients (58 per cent) before surgery, whereas it persisted in only 21 of 135 patients (16 percent) after surgery. Forty patients (24 percent) claimed constipation before surgery, whereas 60 of 135 patients (44 percent) had constipation after rectopexy. Recurrence of full-thickness rectal prolapse was found in only 2 patients-(1.5 percent). Mucosal prolapse occurred in 9 patients (7 percent) after surgery. These results indicate that abdominal posterior rectopexy using Marlex mesh is an effective operation for rectal prolapse, but persistent incontinence occurs in one third of patients and almost half become constipated after the procedure.

These data indicate that the incidence of colostomy related hernia increases with follow up and is significantly higher in patients over the age of 60. Other risk factors, particularly obesity and coexisting cardiorespiratory disease, have no impact.

No abstract

No abstract