[Cecal perforation due to a closed loop type of colonic obstruction].

From a series of 62 patients with mechanical and vascular obstructions of bowels treated at this surgical department in last 5 years, the author presents 2 female patients with neglected malignoma of the sigmoid. In one of them with clinical picture of ileus (anamnesis two years) at operation a perforation of the coecum and consequent diffuse peritonitis was found. The other woman was hospitalized in the early period of her bowel troubles, but was treated as a perityphyltic abscess and consequently an appendectomy has been carried out, without exploration of the sigmoid. She has later been re-operated upon because of ileus and then, also, a perforation of the coecum was confirmed with advanced peritonitis so that it was too late to help her. The author insists on an accurate diagnosis and believes it possible a radical operation should always carried out.