DURING World War II any general hospital in the Communications Zone received in the course of time a fairly large number of patients with colostomies, performed one to three weeks earlier in the forward area hospitals, in association with wounds of the large bowel. It was therefore important to understand the problems involved, since these patients, in most instances, had to have their colostomies closed before return either to duty or to the Zone of the Interior, depending on a number of factors.
It was especially and understandably true during the earlier days of the invasion of the continent that the records returning with patients were at times either inadequate or nonexistent, so that occasionally there was no description of the procedure carried out or of the lesion for which it was performed. Thus the planning of the closure was made considerably more difficult.
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