Colon and rectal injuries caused by high velocity penetrating trauma: Can we stand with the current trends?

Introduction: Management of colorectal injuries is still under debate. The purpose of this study was to analyze management and clinical outcome from a cohort of patients with colorectal injuries caused by high velocity missiles.
Objectives: This was a retrospective analysis of consecutively collected data from all the war zone casualties with colorectal injuries during a 6 month period from 14th April 2008 at Teaching Hospital, Anuradhapura.
Results: 21 patients were treated with colorectal injuries. Mode of treatment included primary repair and anastomosis (57.15%), colostomy (9.52%), primary repair with proximal loop colostomy (33.33%). According to the location of the primary injury to the colon, colostomy was made frequently with rectal injuries (87.5%) vs. colon (15.39%). Morbidity rate was 14.28%.
Conclusion: 1) Primary repair was the most common mode of treatment for colonic trauma. 2) Primary repair and proximal loop colostomy was a safe option for rectal trauma.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sljs.v27i1.1897

The Sri Lanka Journal of Surgery 2009: 27: 13-16