Emergency preoperative stenting versus surgery for acute left-sided malignant colonic obstruction: a multicenter randomized controlled trial.

Background: Surgical management of left colonic cancer presenting as an acute obstruction remains controversial and still is associated with high mortality and morbidity rates. Recently, self-expandable metallic stents (SEMS) have been used as a bridge to surgery in an attempt to decompress the colon and then allow elective one-stage surgical resection without stoma placement. This study aimed to compare the outcomes of emergency surgery alone with emergency placement of colonic SEMS as a bridge to surgery in terms of efficiency and reduction of the stoma placement rate.