Anastomotic suture materials and experimental colorectal carcinogenesis

Local tumor recurrence following restorative surgery for colorectal cancer may occasionally result from the promotion of a neoplastic lesion in a zone of proliferative instability adjacent to the anastomosis. The aim of this study was to compare the influence of three anastomotic suture materials, including stainless steel (as a model of surgical stapling), on colorectal carcinogenesis in an experimental animal model. The transmural implantation of stainless steel sutures into the distal descending colon of albino Swiss rats during the postinitiation phase of tumor induction resulted in significantly fewer animals exhibiting perianastomotic tumors 12 weeks later (3 of 21 animals) when compared with either polyamide (Nurolon^®; Ethicon, Edinburgh, United Kingdom) (14 of 20 animals;P<0.001) or polyglycolic acid (Dexon Plus^®; Davis and Geck, Gosport, United Kingdom) sutures (17 of 21 animals;P <0.001). The findings were similar when the same materials were used to resuture a longitudinal colotomy. For both operative procedures, the type of suture material had no influence on the incidence of large bowel tumors distant from the anastomotic site. These results suggest that stainless steel staples may promote fewer perianastomotic large bowel tumors than certain more conventional suture materials and, therefore, may be safely employed in colorectal cancer surgery.Provisional results from this study were read at the meeting of the Surgical Research Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Belfast, Northern Ireland, January 1988.Supported by a grant from the Research Support Group of the Greater Glasgow Health Board.