Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Dec 26, 2022; 10(36): 13321-13336
Published online Dec 26, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i36.13321
Anastomotic leakage in rectal cancer surgery: Retrospective analysis of risk factors
Giuseppe Brisinda, Maria Michela Chiarello, Gilda Pepe, Maria Cariati, Valeria Fico, Paolo Mirco, Valentina Bianchi
Giuseppe Brisinda, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A Gemelli IRCCS, Rome 00168, Italy
Giuseppe Brisinda, Department of Surgery, Università Cattolica S Cuore, Rome 00168, Italy
Maria Michela Chiarello, Department of Surgery, Azienda Sanitaria Provinciale di Cosenza, Cosenza 87100, Italy
Gilda Pepe, Valeria Fico, Paolo Mirco, Valentina Bianchi, Emergency Surgery and Trauma Center, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A Gemelli IRCCS, Rome 00168, Italy
Maria Cariati, Department of Surgery, Azienda Sanitaria Provinciale di Crotone, Crotone 88900, Italy
Author contributions: Brisinda G contributed to the writing-original draft; Brisinda G, Chiarello MM and Bianchi V contributed to the conceptualization, methodology and writing-reviewing and editing; Brisinda G, Pepe G, Cariati M, Fico V and Mirco P contributed to the data curation; Brisinda G and Fico V contributed to the formal analysis; Fico V and Mirco P contributed to the investigation; All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study involves the analysis of clinical data. For this reason, the approval of the Institutional Board of the Ethics Committee was not required. The study did not lead to changes in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease in the patients under analysis.
Informed consent statement: All patients were informed about the treatment modalities at the time they were observed. Regarding the study, this is a retrospective analysis of anonymous clinical data.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no financial or personal relationships that may inappropriately influence this work. No funding body had any involvement in the preparation or content of this manuscript or in decision to submit for publication.
Data sharing statement: The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Giuseppe Brisinda, MD, Professor, Surgeon, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A Gemelli IRCCS, Largo Agostino Gemelli 8, Rome 00168, Italy. gbrisin@tin.it
Received: October 13, 2022
Peer-review started: October 13, 2022
First decision: November 6, 2022
Revised: November 8, 2022
Accepted: December 5, 2022
Article in press: December 5, 2022
Published online: December 26, 2022
Processing time: 74 Days and 10.9 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Anastomotic leakage (AL) after rectal cancer surgery is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. A review of 583 patients who underwent rectal resection with a double-stapling colorectal anastomosis in a 15-year period was performed. The overall incidence of AL was 10.4%. Mortality was higher in patients with AL than in patients without leak. Prognostic nutritional index < 40 points and intraoperative blood loss were identified as risk factors for AL. Location of anastomosis, number of stapler cartridges used to divide the rectum, diameter of circular stapler and level of vascular section were also correlated to AL in our patients.