[Late radiation damage to intestines following irradiation of gynaecological tumours (author's transl)].

Causes, pathophysiology, types, and dimensions of late radiation damage, following irradiation of gynaecological tumours, are described together with the prognosis of such damage, with reference being made to published data. Intestinal surgery for radiogenic damage had to be applied to 19 patients, between 1969 and 1979. The patients had received therapeutic irradiation of gynaecological tumours, between three months and 23 years before surgery. The colon had been involved in nine cases, the small intestine in seven, and both intestinal sections in two. Postsurgical mortality accounted for 36.8 per cent.