The impact of acquired immune deficiency syndrome on colorectal surgery

Abstract

The patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus are not a homogeneous group and are generally living longer on human active antiretroviral therapy. They are amenable to the colorectal diseases in the general population for which colorectal surgery is safe and effective. Surgical intervention is obligatory in life-threatening surgical correctable disease, but aggressive surgical intervention must be undertaken with caution and adequate perioperative care is required. A close liaison between the human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome physician and the surgeon will decrease negative laparotomies and exclude preterminal cases. The knowledge of anorectal sexually transmitted diseases is important, and the symptomatic improvement of anorectal pathology in acquired immune deficiency syndrome may render delayed wound healing an acceptable complication.