Background and purpose: Despite the advances achieved in surgical techniques in recent years, an intestinal stoma is still needed in many patients undergoing colorectal surgery. However, the intestinal stoma may be associated with serious complications and the need for a second surgical procedure. In extreme cases, when it is not possible to access the abdominal cavity, the management of a complicated stoma is challenging. The purpose of this study was to describe the use of a Dacron vascular prosthesis (DVP) in patients with intestinal stoma complications.
Methods: In patients with a shallow, superficial stoma or mucocutaneous separation (MCS), we sutured the prosthesis in the intestinal loop (at the edge of an intestinal fistula) to create a device to direct the fecal content to the collection bag.
Results: We included 9 patients in this series (colorectal cancer, n = 5; Crohn's disease, n = 2; giant abdominal hernia and morbid obesity, n = 2). The results obtained were promising since they showed good evolution in patients with severe intestinal complications and an impossibility of surgical correction of the stoma. Five patients presented complete healing, and two patients presented partial healing. There were two deaths caused by sepsis, which were not related to the surgical procedure. With this technique, there was a reduction in the leakage of intestinal contents into the peritoneal cavity and an increase in the healing of the peristomal dermatitis in most of the patients. The DVP could possibly represent a surgical alternative in selected patients with complicated stomas when surgical correction may not be a suitable option.
Conclusions: The authors recommend this technique for selected complex cases of stoma complications after unsuccessful attempts to adapt collecting equipment. The placement of the DVP allowed the peristomal skin to heal and improved the contamination of the peritoneal cavity.
Keywords: Intraoperative complication; Peritoneal stomata; Postoperative complication; Prosthesis and implant; Surgical stoma.