Abstract
In spite of remarkable technological advances, anastomotic leak continues to plague our best efforts even 20 years into the twenty-first century. It continues to be a feared complication. The morbidity of leak is far reaching, often involving reoperation, lengthy hospital stay, loss of function, poorer oncologic outcomes, or even operative mortality. Unfortunately, anastomosis outcomes vary, in part based on surgeon performance. This is particularly sobering as perhaps there are few operative outcomes that affect a surgeon’s personal measure of competence and self-esteem. As individual surgeons, we are acutely aware of the dire implications for our patients who suffer an anastomotic leak.
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Vargas, H.D., Margolin, D.A. (2022). Anastomotic Construction. In: Steele, S.R., Hull, T.L., Hyman, N., Maykel, J.A., Read, T.E., Whitlow, C.B. (eds) The ASCRS Textbook of Colon and Rectal Surgery. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66049-9_9
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