The radiation-injured bowel.

Radiation disease of the intestine is usually iatrogenic and frequently unavoidable. The disease, its treatment, and the disability produced are formidable. There is hope that means may be found to increase the resistance of the intestine to radiation damage. Radiation enteropathy is an insidious, progressive disease that is seen with increasing frequency. Serious disabilities may develop after years of gestation. Those patients who require surgery are treated by control of sepsis, correction of metabolic abnormalities, and reversal of protein/calorie malnutrition prior to definitive surgery. The treatment of choice is resection with anastomosis, but recurrences may occur many years later in intestine grossly normal at the time of surgery.