Usefulness of Reduced Port Surgery for Left Colon Cancer

Although laparoscopic surgery has made minimally invasive treatment available for colon cancer, various innovations aimed at developing even more minimally invasive treatment modalities have been reported in recent years. Needlescopic surgery, in which forceps with a small-diameter shaft are used to safely reduce invasiveness without increasing surgeons' stress, has been reported. We introduced the reduced-port surgery (RPS) technique by using needle forceps for the treatment of sigmoidal colon cancer and cancer of the rectosigmoidal region, with the aim of safely reducing invasiveness while maintaining curability. The subjects of this study were patients with sigmoidal colon and rectosigmoidal cancer who underwent laparoscopic resection between January 2012 and December 2014. The patients were divided into a conventional multiport surgery (MPS) group and an RPS group for comparison and analysis. No significant difference was observed in the operative time, volume of blood loss, incidence of postoperative complications, especially anastomotic leak, intestinal obstruction, and surgical site infection. The length of postoperative hospital stay was significantly shorter in the RPS group. Without compromising safety and curability, RPS can reduce not only the number, but also the size of incisions, and make even more minimally invasive surgery feasible. Because this procedure is relatively easy to introduce to young surgeons, we consider it to be useful.