ABSTRACT
Carcinoma Colorectal obstruction from carcinoma is not common. In a series of 908 cases, Serpell et al. (2) reported that 16% of the patients had complete obstruction and 31% had partial obstruction. Of 4583 patients in the Large Bowel Cancer Project of the United Kingdom, obstruction was noted in 16% (3). In this series, the splenic flexure was the site of 49% of the cases, followed by the left colon (23%), the right colon (23%), and the rectum and rectosigmoid colon (6%). In the series by Buechter et al. (1), the sigmoid colon was the most common site of obstruction, accounting for 38%, followed by the descending colon, splenic flexure, transverse colon, rectum, cecum, ascending colon, and hepatic flexure. The sigmoid colon was also noted by Kyllonen (4) as the predominant site of obstruction.
