SummarySeventy‐six patients with obstructive carcinoma of the colon were treated with catheter cecostomy. Twenty‐three died while still in the hospital, five of complications directly related to cecostomy. There were eight nonfatal incision infections, seemingly associated with the closing of incisions around the cecostomy catheters. Fifty per cent of the cecostomies closed spontaneously after resection.Hospital mortality and long‐term results in our series after cecostomy are similar to others' findings after transversostomy.We conclude that cecostomy should not be neglected for primary relief of ileus. Rather, it should be preferred when there is diastatic rupture of the cecum, when the patient's condition is poor, and when the carcinoma lies in the transverse colon or in the vicinity of the splenic flexure.