Critical appraisal of laparoscopic vs open rectal cancer surgery

AIM:To evaluate the long-term clinical and oncological outcomes of laparoscopic rectal resection(LRR) and the impact of conversion in patients with rectal cancer.METHODS:An analysis was performed on a prospective database of 633 consecutive patients with rectal cancer who underwent surgical resection.Patients were compared in three groups:Open surgery(OP),laparoscopic surgery,and converted laparoscopic surgery.Short-term outcomes,long-term outcomes,and survival analysis were compared.RESULTS:Among 633 patients studied,200 patients had successful laparoscopic resections with a conversion rate of 11.1%(25 out of 225).Factors predictive of survival on univariate analysis include the laparoscopic approach(P = 0.016),together with factors such as age,ASA status,stage of disease,tumor grade,presence of perineural invasion and vascular emboli,circumferential resection margin < 2 mm,and postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy.The survival benefit of laparoscopic surgery was no longer significant on multivariateanalysis(P = 0.148).Neither 5-year overall survival(70.5% vs 61.8%,P = 0.217) nor 5-year cancer free survival(64.3% vs 66.6%,P = 0.854) were significantly different between the laparoscopic group and the converted group.CONCLUSION:LRR has equivalent long-term oncologic out c ome s w he n c ompare d t o OP.Laparos c opic conversion does not confer a worse prognosis.