Surgical repair of radiation damage of the rectum: a systematic approach to a difficult problem.

Twenty-three patients with serious irradiation damage of the rectum underwent surgical treatment. Patients were classified according to the level of the lesion and the presence of stenosis. Patients with high lesions (Type I) (n = 5), were treated by resection with end to end anastomosis. Patients with low lesions, with stenosis (Type II) (n = 6), were treated by resection with descending colon flap repair. Patients with low lesions, without stenosis (Type III) (n = 7) were treated by gracilis muscle repair. The remaining patients (n = 5) with miscellaneous, often complex problems (Type IV) were treated by a variety of techniques. Results in Type I, II, and III patients were encouraging with 80% of the reconstructed patients obtaining normal faecal continence.