Hartmann’s operation: history and present requirements

Abstract

On the 5th of October 1921 at the XXX Congress of French Surgeons French Surgeon H.Hartmann reported about a new unique surgery, which could be used in the course of treatment of rectal and colon cancer, accompanied with acute bowel obstruction. The core of the given surgical procedure was an excision of the distal end of the sigmoid colon and upper ampullary section of straight intestine with tumour, colon exteriorization in a shape of an end colostomy, closure of distal segment with putting into small pelvis or leaving in abdominal cavity. Hartmann’s operation is a radical surgery, answering all modern oncology principles, and is a part of modern standards and clinical recommendation on treatment of accompanied rectal and colon cancer.