Surgical management of radiation enteritis.

In the great majority of patients treated with radiation, only transitory injury to the bowel occurs, but in five percent of patients, permanent damage to the small bowel or rectum is seen. Symptoms of radiation enteropathy may begin four to six months after the treatment is completed or may not present until several years later. Most often, the patient presents with abdominal pain, diarrhea, hematochezia, and signs of malnutrition. Others may present, initially, with intestinal obstruction, perforation, or fistulization. It is important to differentiate this clinical syndrome from recurrent cancer by appropriate radiological studies and biopsies.This paper presents four patients who were treated with radiation for invasive carcinoma of the cervix and subsequently developed radiation enteritis. All were treated surgically and are surviving.