Peritonitis is an urgent potentiality in any surgical maneuver for a malignant condition of the large bowel. The reasons for this group themselves mainly under three headings: (1) the peculiar conformation of the large bowel, which differs widely from the small intestine, both anatomically and physiologically; (2) the marked permeability of the large bowel when attacked by malignant disease, due either to its peculiar structure or to mucosal injury produced by large ulcerating carcinomas, and (3) the debilitation, dehydration and generally lowered resistance of patients who harbor neoplasms.
A glance at mortality statistics shows the necessity and desirability of adopting any measure which will, even in a small degree, tend to obviate peritoneal contamination, and it was with this in view that the isolation and individualization of cases of diseases of the colon at the Mayo Clinic were undertaken two years ago. This formation of a colonic unit has permitted