In a series of twenty-five partial resections of the sigmoid flexure (megasigmoid) including nine complicated cases,1 I have noted during a period of from six months to two years a relapse in one fourth of the cases. Judging from this result, I conclude that in my hands partial colectomy for this condition has not been successful.
This failure may not cause any surprise because by means of the partial colectomy only the most altered portion of the colon is removed. The supralying and the infralying segments may transform themselves, in time, to an inert receptacle for feces. My attention was duly called to the fact that the recurrences among the noncomplicated cases with an emergency condition were noted in those cases in which a clinical picture of a left sided constipation predominated. Among the complicated cases, 50 per cent repeated "fecalomas" were registered in the history. The four reported