title: Practical approaches to effective management of intestinal radiation injury: benefit of resectional surgery.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the outcome of patients undergoing surgical resection of the bowel for sustained radiation-induced damage intractable to conservative management.
  
  
  METHODS
  During a 7-year period we operated on 17 cases (5 male, 12 female) admitted to our surgical department with intestinal radiation injury (IRI). They were originally treated for a pelvic malignancy by surgical resection followed by postoperative radiotherapy. During follow-up, they developed radiation enteritis requiring surgical treatment due to failure of conservative management.
  
  
  RESULTS
  IRI was located in the terminal ileum in 12 patients, in the rectum in 2 patients, in the descending colon in 2 patients, and in the cecum in one patient. All patients had resection of the affected region(s). There were no postoperative deaths, while 3 cases presented with postoperative complications (17.7%). All patients remained free of symptoms without evidence of recurrence of IRI for a median follow-up period of 42 mo (range, 6-96 mo).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We report a favorable outcome without IRI recurrence of 17 patients treated by resection of the diseased bowel segment.
authors: Department of Surgery, Metaxa Cancer Memorial Hospital, Piraeus 11522, Greece.
authors: Nikolaos
authors: N
authors: Perrakis
authors: Evangelos
authors: E
authors: Athanassiou
authors: Dimitra
authors: D
authors: Vamvakopoulou
authors: Maria
authors: M
authors: Kyriazi
authors: Haris
authors: H
authors: Kappos
authors: Nikolaos C
authors: NC
authors: Vamvakopoulos
authors: Iakovos
authors: I
authors: Nomikos
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007414:Intestinal Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D007422:Intestines / Q000473:pathology* / Q000528:radiation effects* / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D011832:Radiation Injuries / Q000601:surgery*; D016896:Treatment Outcome