Introduction:
The aim of this study was to evaluate the significance of clinicopathological characteristics of colorectal cancer patients undergoing emergency and elective surgery.

Material and methods:
In total, 116 tumors from patients treated surgically for colorectal cancer at four hospitals in Tehran between 2008 and 2013 were analyzed in the current study.

Results:
Our findings revealed that the emergency cases were significantly more likely to have an advanced TNM stage (p = 0.027) and histologic grade (p = 0.01) compared with the elective patients. Furthermore, the nature of surgery was significantly associated with vascular and perineural invasion (p = 0.021; p = 0.001). We also evaluated the association of gender, age, and tumor location with the nature of surgical presentation. However, no association was found between these parameters and the nature of surgery. Emergency was also correlated with greater length of hospital stay and higher rate of admission to the intensive care unit. The mortality rate was 20% in emergency cases, while patients with elective surgery had 5.63% perioperative mortality (p = 0.001). The emergency patients had a higher rate of mortality.

Conclusions:
Our data indicated that colorectal cancer patients undergoing emergency surgery showed an advanced stage. The emergency patients had a higher rate of mortality than elective cases.