DRAINAGE OF LOW ANTERIOR ANASTOMOSES

Sixty-two low anterior anastomoses have been carried out over a five year period. The mortality was 1.6 per cent, the complication rate 14.5 per cent, and the leakage rate 8 per cent. Only two patients required proximal colostomy because of disruption of the anastomosis. Good results in this difficult group of patients are attributed to careful surgical technic and the use of dependent drainings of the presacral space through an incision placed in the perianal area, an adjunct so safe and simple that it has been used on all such patients for the past twenty years. © 1969.