EFFICACY OF DILATATIONS FOR ANASTOMOTIC COLORECTAL STENOSES - PROGNOSTIC FACTORS

The authors report their experience of 30 patients with colorectal ana stomotic stenosis treated by 62 dilatation sessions in order to evalua te which anastomotic characteristics could influence the success of di latation therapy. Patients were subdivided into group A (dilatation su ccessful) and group B (dilatation unsuccessful). Overall, dilatation w as successful in 73.3% of cases, with only one important complication. The prognostic factors considered were anastomotic dehiscence, adjuva nt radiotherapy, presence of colostomy at dilatation, site, morphology and length of the stenosis, presence of neoplastic recurrence, type o f anastomosis and type of dilatation. Radiotherapy, local neoplastic r ecurrence and large anastomotic dehiscence were the more important ind ependent prognostic factors. If present together, they were associated with an almost 100% probability of failure and, vice versa, if they w ere absent this probability was 5%.