However, conservative treatment in non-selected cases usually requires prolonged periods of bed rest (with consequential functional disability), which is not recommended for elderly persons who often have other diseases and poor general conditions.
Patients with metastatic tumours often present in poor general conditions and with several disease-induced symptoms.
Most patients were in poor general conditions, and had several complications other than malignant diseases.
Two patients could not complete the treatment schedule due to poor general conditions and one patient due to liver abscess.
These findings suggest that even severely ill patients with poor general conditions can be treated at home by providing adequate care.
7 patients were discharged within 48 h after surgery, while four had a longer hospitalization due to poor general conditions (1) or rectal bleeding (3).
In 42 cases among patients with poor general conditions and/or high operative risk, with the local state of the tumor taken into account, we performed only a I/II level lymphadenectomy.
Of 26 patients six were excluded from the study because they were treated with radiotherapy after biopsy confirmed tumor diagnosis (four patients refused surgery and two patients had poor general conditions).
