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Chronic Radiation Injury to the Intestine: A Clinico‐pathological Study
Author(s) -
Kwitko A. O.,
Pieterse A. S.,
Hecker R.,
Rowland R.,
Wigg D. R.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.596
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-5994
pISSN - 0004-8291
DOI - 10.1111/j.1445-5994.1982.tb02476.x
Subject(s) - medicine , radiation therapy , malabsorption , radiation enteritis , gastroenterology , radiation injury , pathological , bowel obstruction , disease , small intestine , incidence (geometry) , large intestine , short bowel syndrome , surgery , parenteral nutrition , physics , optics
Chronic radiation injury to the intestine: a clinico‐pathological study. A. O. Kwitko, A. S. Pieterse, R. Hecker, R. Rowland and D. R. Wigg, Aust. N.Z. J. Med., 1982, 12, pp. 272–277. This paper draws attention to the continuing problem of chronic radiation injury to bowel. Fifty‐seven symptomatic patients with this disorder were studied, 31 with predominantly small bowel injury and 26 with colonic disease. The mean latent interval following irradiation was 4 ? 7 years. Small bowel disease presented initially as intestinal obstruction (19 cases) or malabsorption (11 cases) and the radiation related mortality in small bowel disease was 32%, while that for colonic disease was 4%. There was a high incidence of prior pelvic surgery and of adjunctive chemotherapy in patients developing small bowel disease. Analysis of the radiotherapy techniques used highlighted that an unsatisfactory distribution of radiation dosage occurred when parallel opposed fields were used particularly where one field only was treated daily. Difficulty in matching external beams with intracavity sources may also have contributed to radiation injury.