[Opaque enema and radiography of defecation in the pre- and postoperative morpho-functional evaluation of rectal neoplasms].

From November 1989 to April 1990, 16 patients with rectal cancer were examined preoperatively by means of double contrast barium enema and defecography. Double contrast barium enema was used to identify the cancer: based on the distance of cancer from anal rima, the patients were divided into 3 groups: 1) less than 6 cm; 2) 6-11 cm; 3) more than 11 cm. In all patients defecography was performed at the end of barium enema to evaluate rectal wall mobility. Thus, the morphological information yielded by barium enema could be integrated with the dynamic data from defecography. The evaluation was thus possible of both longitudinal and, indirectly, transverse tumor spread. All the patients underwent surgery and radiological findings were compared with surgical ones. In those patients in whom defecography had shown rigidity of the rectal walls, extraparietal tumor spread was observed during surgical resection. Seven patients underwent anterior resection, and were subsequently examined by the same combination of barium enema and defecography. The combined use of the two methods was useful to evaluate the anastomosis and to show possible dynamic changes after surgery.