[In Process Citation]

The aim of this study was to investigate postoperative und long-term results after radical tumor surgery in complicated colorectal cancers. One hundred and twenty-six (11.7%) of 1071 patients treated for large bowel cancer between 1986 and 1997 were operated on for bowel obstruction (84; 7.8%): or perforation (42; 3.9%). Postoperative mortality was significantly higher in complicated than in uncomplicated cancers (19% after bowel obstruction, 38% after perforation, 6% in uncomplicated cases). Development of preoperative organ dysfunction determined survival in both complications. Mortality after perforations was influenced by the degree of peritonitis and tumor stage, while patients after bowel obstruction were at greater risk in the case of cardiac comorbidity. Long-term results depended on tumor stage but not on complications. Our concept of radical tumor surgery in emergency operations was supported by the fact that long-term results of patients surviving the acute stage of complicated colorectal cancers did not differ from those of patients with uncomplicated carcinomas.