Abstract
Total pelvic exenteration (TPE) was performed in 9 colorectal cancer patients. TPE was very excruciating operative procedure. Operating time was long, ranging from 5 hours to 8 hours and 20 minutes. There was massive bleeding, between 1531 and 11, 000 ml, and severe postopetative complications such as intestinal fistula, ileus, leakage or occlusion of ileal conduit, and severe infection including MRSA infection, were presnt.
Of the 5 patients in the primary TPE group, two survived for a long-term of 10 years and 11 years 4 months, respectively. But three of the four patients in the secondary group (those operated on for local recurrences) eventually succumbed to cancer.
These data suggest that TPE is a limited procedure applying only to patients who can cope with the severity of operation and the postoperative complications and only to tumors that can be removed leaving sufficient tumor-free margin to insure against local recurrences in either primary or secondary operations.
