Some investigators found a moderately elevated leukocyte count on days 2 to 5 to predict anastomotic leak and infectious complications.8,10,11 The leukocyte count in our study did not discriminate between surgical, infectious, or combined complications and is therefore not useful for this purpose, as in other studies.6,13 We included this SIRS criterion for reasons of comparison with CRP and PCT. This evidence concerns the gene CRP and systemic inflammatory response syndrome.