Through the 1970’s and 80’s, a colon injury was automatically managed by repair/resection coupled with a diverting colostomy. This technique became commonplace due to bad experiences with repair attempts during earlier decades.

During the late 70’s, a few trauma centers began dabbling in primary repair. At Wayne State University in Detroit, John Kirkpatrick had popularized an exteriorization technique. This involved repairing the colon and bringing the area of repair to the outside of the body. The area was watched for several days and if no breakdown was noted, it could be dropped back into the abdomen with a relatively minor procedure. 

After the success of exteriorization, some of the surgeons at Receiving began repairing colon injuries and leaving them in the abdomen. They retrospectively looked at their experience with this radical idea from 1980 to 1987. Injuries were predominantly penetrating. From 1980 to 1983, 29% of patients were managed in this way. During the final years, the use of this technique increased to 56%. 

Interestingly, Injury Severity Score in patients who did not get colostomy was higher, but the number of complications (leaks, intra-abdominal abscesses) was lower! Colostomy patients had 15 abscesses, while those without colostomy had 1 leak and only 5 abscesses.

This paper represents one of the first reports on colon injury management without colostomy, and set the stage for additional trials. It has led to the nearly routine use of this technique in current times.

Reference: Management of the Injured Colon: Evolving Practice at an Urban Trauma Center. Levison, Thomas, Wiencek and Wilson. J Trauma 30(3): 247-253, 1980.