[Evolution of the surgical treatment of rectal cancer. Our experience]

In this study we have reviewed our data from 1973 to 1998 and we have compared three intervals. In each of these periods we have performed the same type of surgery which enables the comparison of adopted techniques with obtained results. During the first period (1973-1980) we have treated 65 cases of rectum cancer staging between B2 and D, which were mainly localised in the medium rectum (41.2%). During the second period (1981-1990) we have treated 44 cases with a majority of patients staging B2. The localisation was again mainly in the medium rectum (38.5%). During the third period (1981-1998) we have treated 37 cases of rectum cancer staging between A2 and B1. Again the most frequent site was the medium rectum (48.9%). Consequently, we compared the staging, the type of surgery and the complications for the three periods. Our results show that the survival time was 5 years, in 70% of the cases where an anterior resection was performed, but this percentage decreased substantially if we also considered patients presenting with an advanced staging (C2-D), in which the only type of surgery that could be performed was colostomy or the simple explorative laparotomy.