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An intestinal anastomosis becomes necessary when a segment of the gastrointestinal tract is resected for benign or malignant indications and gastrointestinal continuity needs to be restored. The oldest method to close intestinal wound was described by the Indian physician Sushruta, 800 years before Christ, who used the jaws of ants to hold the wound margins together. The introduction of staplers in recent decades have enabled to construct a safe anastomosis in places difficult to reach for conventional suture techniques. There are several studies which showed that there are no such differences in conventional handsewn and stapler anastomosis technique in elective gastrointestinal surgeries except the duration of operation is less in stapler anastomosis technique. In the present study, three types of gastrointestinal anastomosis (gastrectomy & gastrojejunostomy, right hemicolectomy & ileocolic anastomosis and anterior resection & rectocolic anastomosis) were taken and all 68 patients after these operative procedures were divided into two groups (gr A handsewn and gr B stapler). They were compared by the parameters like duration of procedure, appearance of bowel sounds in postoperative period, anastomotic leak and duration of hospital stay. Regarding duration of operative procedure, the mean duration of gastrectomy and gastrojejunostomy for gr A was 166 mins and for gr B was 144 mins, the mean duration of right hemicolectomy and ileocolic anastomosis for gr A was 143 mins and for gr B was 125 mins, the mean duration of anterior resection and rectocolic anastomosis for gr A was 149 mins and for gr B was 131 mins. It signifies that gr B or stapler anastomosis required less time and this value was statistically significant (p <0.0001). There was no statistically significant difference regarding the appearance of bowel sounds, starting of oral feeding and hospital stay in the postoperative periods. We conclude that there was reduction in operative time in patients ......
Sarkar et al. (Mon,) studied this question.