SUTURE LINE RECURRENCE FOLLOWING CURATIVE RESECTION FOR CARCINOMA OF THE COLON-REPORT OF TWO CASES-

Abstract

A clinicopathological features of suture line recurrence were studied in 337 patients who underwent curative resection for primary colonic cancer at the department between 1974 and 1996. Two patients had a suture line recurrence (0.6%) 3 and 16 months after the initial operation respectively. They were both female and 42 and 53 years old at the initial operation. Both primary tumors were located in the sigmoid colon. Surgical margin was 6 to 10cm in both cases. The primary cancer invaded beyond the colonic wall with positive nodes, slight to moderate lymphatic invation and no vessel invasion in each case. These cases were curatively resected at the initial operation. The local recurrence was considered to be originated from implantation metastasis of exfoliated cancer cells.