The lymph node ratio optimises staging in patients with node positive colon cancer with implications for adjuvant chemotherapy.

Purpose: The ratio of positive lymph nodes to total retrieved lymph nodes (lymph node ratio, LNR) has been proposed to be the superior prognostic score in colon cancer. This study aimed to validate LNR in a large, multi-centred population, focusing on patients that have undergone adjuvant chemotherapy.

Methods: Analysis of a prospectively collected database (The West of Scotland Colorectal Cancer Managed Clinical Network) with 1,514 patients with colonic cancer identified that had undergone elective curative surgical resection in the 12 hospitals in the West of Scotland from 2000-2004.

Deprivation and colorectal cancer surgery: longer-term survival inequalities are due to differential postoperative mortality between socioeconomic groups.

Background: Deprivation is associated with poorer survival after surgery for colorectal cancer, but determinants of this socioeconomic inequality are poorly understood.

Methods: A total of 4,296 patients undergoing surgery for colorectal cancer in 16 hospitals in the West of Scotland between 2001 and 2004 were identified from a prospectively maintained regional audit database. Postoperative mortality (<30 days) and 5-year relative survival by socioeconomic circumstances, measured by the area-based Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2006, were examined.

Evaluation of autofluorescence colonoscopy for the detection and diagnosis of colonic polyps.

Background: Colorectal cancer is the second most common cause of death in the United Kingdom. Most cancers are believed to arise within preexisting adenomas. Although colorectal adenomas have a clear neoplastic potential, hyperplastic polyps do not.

Laparoscopic colorectal resection does not reduce incisional hernia rates when compared with open colorectal resection.

Background: Laparoscopic colorectal surgery has been reported to have some advantages compared with open surgery. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the incidence of incisional hernias after elective open colorectal resection versus laparoscopic colorectal resection.

Methods: The study group consisted of 104 patients who underwent elective colorectal resection or reversal of a Hartmann's procedure between November 2003 and March 2005.

Prospective, five-year follow-up study of patients with symptomatic uncomplicated diverticular disease.

Purpose: The natural history of diverticular disease is largely unknown. Most studies are retrospective and treatment recommendations are derived from outdated literature. This study was a prospective, long-term assessment of the development of complications in patients with symptomatic diverticular disease.