Does the intraoperative air leak test reduce the clinical colorectal anastomotic leakage rate?
Current intraoperative air leak testing methodologies do not significantly reduce clinical colorectal anastomotic leakage rates, highlighting a need for standardized testing and effective repair methods.
Based on the available evidence, performing an ALT with the reported methodology has not significantly reduced the clinical CAL rate but remains necessary due to a higher risk of CAL in ALT(+) cases. Unfortunately, additional repairs under current methods may not effectively decrease this risk. Results of this review urge a standardization of ALT methodology and effective methods to repair ALT(+) anastomoses.
Wu et al. (Mon,) studied this question.
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