Abstract
Patients with refractory anastomotic stenosis following lower gastrointestinal surgery are susceptible to reductions in quality of life. A patient with edematous stenosis of the anastomotic site following colon cancer surgery that improved markedly following combined therapy with local injection and systemic steroid administration is reported. The patient was a woman in her 60s who was discharged after undergoing laparoscopic right hemicolectomy for stage II cancer of the ascending colon in June 2011 but was re-admitted 4 days later with a diagnosis of ileus. Based on abdominal contrast-enhanced CT, the cause of the ileus was edematous stenosis of the anastomotic site. Conservative therapy did not result in improvement, and an attempt to perform endoscopic balloon dilation proved unsuccessful because the guide wire could not be advanced. Therefore, local steroid injection combined with 2 days of steroid infusion was performed and resulted in rapid symptom improvement. Although the administration method and long-term outcomes must be investigated in the future, the present case suggests that steroids are effective for anastomotic stenosis following lower gastrointestinal surgery.
