Does anastomotic leakage after surgery for colon or rectal cancer worsen short-term morbidity, mortality, and long-term oncological outcomes?
Anastomotic leakage after rectal cancer surgery is associated with worse short-term and long-term oncological outcomes, highlighting the need for clinical awareness of increased local recurrence risk.
Short-term morbidity, mortality, and long-term oncological outcomes are negatively influenced by the occurrence of anastomotic leakage after rectal cancer surgery. For colon cancer, no significant effect was observed; however, due to low power, no conclusions on the influence of anastomotic leakage on outcomes after colon surgery could be reached. Clinical awareness of increased risk of local recurrence after anastomotic leakage throughout the follow-up is mandatory.Trial Registration: Registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00387842 and NCT00297791.
Koedam et al. (Sat,) studied this question.