The role of preoperative mesenteric arteriography in colon interposition.

In a series of mesenteric arteriograms, the marginal artery in the right colon was present in six of 20 studies (30 percent); in the left colon it was present in all of the 20 cases studied (100 percent). Such preoperative knowledge of the vascular pattern permits the surgeon to choose a suitable segment of bowel for successful colon interposition and assists him in shortening the operative time. When this information was applied in 19 consecutive left colon interpositions, only one major suture line dehiscence in the neck was encountered (5.3 percent).