Stomal construction: Technical tricks for difficult situations, prevention and treatment of post-operative complications

Summary The creation of a digestive stoma, whether it is a lateral stoma or a terminal stoma, is an essential gesture in colorectal surgery, but that may result in post-operative complications in 35% of patients. Surgeons are aware of the situations at the origin of complications, although there is little factual data in the literature to discriminate them. They are related to patient-specific factors (obesity, cirrhosis, portal hypertension) or to the underlying pathology (colon obstruction) or the conditions under which the intervention is performed (emergency). The aim of this review is to describe these different situations and the data from the literature that may allow reduction of the risk of an unsatisfactory or even complicated stoma.