Background and objectives: The optimal management of symptomatic advanced peritoneal carcinomatosis of non-gynecologic origin is not defined. Historic controls of surgical efforts report high postoperative mortality and morbidity rates with equivocal palliation. Novel surgical procedures need to be tested in terms of the impact on survival and quality of life.
Study design: We studied 46 consecutive patients who underwent total abdominal colectomy, pelvic peritonectomy with construction of an end-ileostomy for palliation of peritoneal carcinomatosis.
Results: Total abdominal colectomy, pelvic peritonectomy, and end-ileostomy was successfully performed in 46 patients of median age of 54.4 years. Overall median survival was 10.7 months, with a mean follow-up period of 12 months. Patients with appendiceal malignancy had a median survival of 19.7 months. Prognosis was poorer for patients with colon cancer, who had a median survival of 7.0 months, while patients with primary peritoneal carcinomatosis had a median of 7.8 months. Postoperative morbidity and mortality rates were 19.5 and 8.6%, respectively.
Conclusions: Total abdominal colectomy, pelvic peritonectomy, and end-ileostomy is a technically feasible procedure and is advocated for the palliation of patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis of appendiceal origin. It is not clear if the procedure should be advocated for more invasive gastrointestinal malignancies.
Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.