Between 1985 and 1994, 262 patients with metastases underwent resectional treatment in the Department for General and Abdominal Surgery of the University of Mainz. Twenty-seven patients with recurrent metastases were treated with repeat resections. The records of these 27 patients were reviewed and analyzed. After 42 repeat resections, 4 of 27 patients (14.8%) developed complications. Three of 27 patients died in the postoperative period (11.1%). For patients with R0 resection of metastases from colorectal primaries the median survival time was 69 months after resection of the primary tumor (n = 16), 38 months after the first resection of metastases (n = 15), and 25 months after the second resection of metastases (n = 15). After the last repeat resection of metastases in each patient, median survival was 25 months in patients with R0 resection (n = 11), compared to 7 months following R1/2 resection (n = 5) (P = 0.007). Disease-free survival following first R0 resection of colorectal metastases (n = 15), was not significantly different from disease-free survival following repeated R0 resection of colorectal metastases (n = 21). Patients with repeat resection of colorectal liver metastases (n = 9) had longer disease-free survival (median 18 months) than patients with repeat resection of colorectal metastases in organs other than liver or lungs (median 4 months; n = 4) (P = 0.005). Repeat resections for metastases are characterized by low operative risk and a prognostic benefit for highly selected patients.
