[Manual and stapled sutures in digestive surgery: a comparative evaluation]. / Suture manuali e meccaniche in chirurgia digestiva: valutazione comparativa.

Results concerning 819 digestive sutures and anastomoses, 376 (45.9%) of which hand sewn and 443 (54.1%) stapled, are retrospectively analyzed. Comparative evaluation of the two techniques yielded better results for oesophageal and rectal anastomoses as well as duodenal stump closure mechanically performed. For intestinal anastomoses the two techniques showed similar results when performed in election, on the contrary, mechanical sutures fared significantly worse than hand-sutures in non elective surgery, with a morbidity of 30.9% vs 10.2% (p less than 0.05) and a mortality of 4.8% vs 0%. In conclusion, for esophageal, rectal and duodenal anastomoses staplers may be preferred, while for the intestinal anastomoses in non elective surgery hand-sutures should be preferred.