Bladder and intestinal injuries following radiation therapy of carcinoma of the uterine cervix.

The frequency of serious complications in the bladder and intestines in 674 patients irradiated for carcinoma of the cervix using three different techniques is reported. The first technique was the Stockholm technique, which gave 5% severe complications. In the other two, the patients received primarily external irradiation without central shielding, complemented with intracavitary treatment. Difficulties in the Stockholm technique and in techniques combining external high-voltage and intracavitary treatment were taken into account, and the frequency of serious complications decreased to less than 1%.