PURPOSE: This study was designed to evaluate the longterm complication rate of left iliac fossa end sigmoid colostomies and to determine etiologic factors. METHODS: A retrospective chart review and actuarial analysis were performed. RESULTS: The crude and actuarial risks of paracolostomy complications in 203 patients were 51.2 percent and 58.1 percent at 13 years, respectively. Paracolostomy hernia was the most common complication (36.7 percent at 10 years). Siting the stoma through the belly of the rectus abdominis muscle did not reduce the risk of hernia, but an extraperitoneal course had a significantly lower risk of herniation when compared with a transperitoneal course and intestinal obstruction was marginally less frequent. Paracolostomy hernias were otherwise more likely in the elderly, and in those with other abdominal wall hernias. Mesenteric fixation did not reduce the subsequent chance of prolapse. The reduction in the risk of intestinal obstruction when lateral space closure was employed was not statistically significant (4 percent vs. 10 percent, P < 0.1), and all three patients with stomal retraction had had lateral space closure. CONCLUSION: The evidence in this study that spans a 22-year period questions much surgical technical dogma and raises the possibility that parastomal hernias may, like inguinal hernias, represent a failure in the transversalis fascia that might technically be avoidable.
