Motility effects of anterior resection of the rectum performed for diverticular disease.

Colonic motility study was performed in fiftyfive patients with symptomatic complicated diverticular disease, who underwent semielective surgery, and in twenty healthy volunteers. The pressure sensors were positioned in the descending and the true sigmoid colon. The colonic motility index was significantly higher in patients with symptomatic complicated diverticular disease than in controls in the basal (p less than 0.001) and post-prandial periods (p less than 0.001). Three months after anterior resection of the rectum with wide resection of descending colon the motility index was significantly reduced (p less than 0.001) in comparison to that before treatment; all patients were asymptomatic. Three years and five years later, the manometric findings continued to be stable and the patients continued to be asymptomatic. These data suggest that anterior resection of the rectum (with wide resection of the descending colon) lowers intraluminal pressure significantly and this effect appears long lasting.