Mechanical digestive anastomosis: a new technique to make it easier, quicker and more reliable.

In digestive circular mechanical anastomosis, a purse-string suture is normally performed in order to ensure that the anvil is securely fixed in place. We present a new technique where an adjustable plastic belt is used instead of the purse-string suture for the same effect. The procedure has been used on 10 patients with esophageal and gastric carcinomas. There was no difficulty in performing the anastomosis in any of the cases. We believe the procedure is technically simple and safe, and provides a significant advance in automatic digestive suturing.