[Reoperations in surgical oncology: recurrence of colon carcinoma after surgery]

Colon cancer is the second leading cause of death for cancer disease, after lung cancer, with nearly 18,000 deaths per year in Italy. In spite of the progress that have taken place over the past 30 years, little improvement has been gained in this dismal outcome, and the 5-year survival remains around 50%. Over one half of the patients will suffer from recurrence after a potentially curative resection. A major challenge lies in better detection of recurrences in order to diagnose those patients still amenable to curative resection. Locoregional recurrence is of particular interest and its frequency, diagnostic limitations and surgical treatment are herein discussed.

[The surgery of laparoceles. The postoperative complications]

The use of prosthetic meshes in incisional hernias repairs is now very attractive, particularly for wide fascial defects; nevertheless the presence of a foreign body and placement technique may be responsible for complications sometimes leading to failure. To evaluate technical problems and complications in incisional hernia surgery the authors reviewed their 5 year experience in 70 patients; 39 mesh repairs and 31 direct sutures of the abdominal wall were performed. Local complications (fistulas, wound hematoma or infections) were more frequent in the former group; PTFE meshes showed a lower resistance to infections, particularly in diabetics, and in three patients partial or total removal was mandatory. Prosthetic meshes showed a marked reduction of recurrences in incisional hernia surgery, but their use leads to more local complications than direct repair; the authors believe that mesh placement must be evaluated for every single patient and not used as a routine procedure.