A Study of Outcomes in Patients with Gastrointestinal Tract Lymphomas Who Require Inadvertent Surgery

Abstract Aim Patients may present with acute surgical symptoms from their lymphoma. We aimed to study postoperative outcomes and 3-year overall survival in patients who had inadvertent surgery as primary management of their gastrointestinal tract lymphomas. Method Suitable patients were identified using electronic records from January 2013 to December 2022. Demographics, clinicopathological characteristics and survival outcomes of these patients were collected retrospectively. Results A total of 25 patients were identified. The most common clinical symptom was abdominal pain (n = 18, 72%) with demonstration of an obstruction (n = 16, 64%) or perforation (n = 4, 16%) by a mass on CT scan. Small bowel was the most common site, followed by colon and stomach (55%, 24% and 21% respectively) Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma was the most common subtype (66.7%). Immunohistochemistry revealed B-lymphocyte antigen CD20 to be positive in most patients (n = 17, 68%) and Ki 67% to be high (>70%) in a third (n = 8, 32%). Upon discharge, two thirds of patients were well enough to have systemic chemotherapy (n = 19, 76%). Two patients died from surgical complications while the rest succumbed to disease progression (n = 10, 76%). The overall 3-year survival rate was 56%. Conclusions Patients with gastrointestinal tract lymphoma who do not die in the postoperative period after inadvertent surgery are likely to be alive at 3 years with the use of systemic chemotherapy.