The Impact of Transanal Decompression Tube Placement After Colorectal Anastomosis: A Randomized Trial

There is currently no standardization in the use of the transanal decompressive tube during the postoperative after a colorectal surgery. The available evidence is based on studies with methodological differences. Most of the studies exclude patients with a diverting ileostomy, which are those patients who have a higher risk of anastomotic leak, so the real effect of transanal decompressive tube could have been masked. For this reason we believe that to assess the true effect of rectal decompression, patients with diverting stoma should be included.

One of the complications of performing the colorectal anastomosis is the anastomotic leak, which sometimes entails the need for reinterventions and stoma formation (provisional or definitive). In recent decades, the improvement in surgical techniques together with the knowledge of the causes that predispose to the anastomotic failure have allowed to reduced the rates. The placement of a tube probe through the anus in the postoperative period that decompresses the contents of the interior of the intestine (liquid or air) has been proposed as a factor that could influence the healing between intestines. In studies carried out in other centers, with the same characteristics as the present one, differences have been shown in the probability of anastomotic leakage, but these results are not conclusive and do not allow us to know the effectiveness of this procedure.