Abstract
Purpose: To evaluate the validity of avoiding placement of surgical drain in elective curative colectomy for cancer. who need placement of surgical Patients and methods. The subjects were consecutive 50 colonic cancer patients undergoing elective curative resection without routine placement of surgical drains since June 2010. Forty-six patients who underwent similar surgery with routine placement before May 2010 were served as a control. Results: Surgical drain was placed in 5 patients (10%) because of intraoperative spillage of stool in one and information for postoperative hemorrhage in 4, even though no postoperative complications occurred in such patients. There were no significant differences in the incidence anastomotic leakage (0% vs. 2.2%, p=0.14), incisional site infection (4.4% vs. 4.4%, p>0.99), organ/space infection (0% vs. 2.2%, p=0.14), maximal postoperative body temperature, and changes in C-reactive protein levels between patients without subsequent drain placement (n=45) and those with routine drain placement (n=45). Conclusion: Avoiding routine placement of surgical drain in elective curative colectomy is acceptable in terms of validity. Further collection of data is needed to identify candidates suitable for drain placement.
