Treatment of carcinoma of the sigmoid colon and upper rectum. A comparison of local segmental resection and left hemicolectomy.

We report a retrospective study of 107 cases of carcinoma of the sigmoid colon and upper rectum treated for primary cure at the University of California at Los Angeles Hospital between 1955 and 1970. Excluded from this analysis were patients treated by abdominoperineal resection, local excision, fulguration, or abdominoperineal pull-through procedures. Ninety-one patients were treated by local segmental resection and 16 by left hemicolectomy. Both groups were similar in regard to patient age and general health, lesion size, location, and pathological Duke's classification. Five-year survival was 70.3% after local segmental resection and 56.3% after left hemicolectomy. Hospital mortality was 1% after the former and 6.2% after the latter. Rate of recurrence after local segmental resection was 41% of that seen after left hemicolectomy, while complications were one-third as great. The present results after local segmental resection are comparable to the results reported in the literature when hemicolectomy was the procedure used. The data presented suggest that local segmental resection is an effective cancer operation for carcinoma of the sigmoid and upper rectum, and is fraught with a lesser morbidity and mortality than a radical left hemicolectomy.