Laparoscopic colon surgery in community practice

The benefits of laparoscopic colon surgery have been shown in the literature. More recently, the oncologic outcomes have been shown to be similar in the laparoscopic group when compared with open colon surgery for colon cancer. However, most of the published literature is from university/academic institutions. There is limited literature on laparoscopic colon surgery from a community hospital.

A retrospective chart review was conducted of 62 laparoscopic colon surgeries from a single surgeon's practice in a community hospital from October 27, 2003, to August 31, 2006. The laparoscopic approach was performed on patients with benign and curative colon cancer. The primary outcome measures were length of operating room times, pathologic results, length of hospital stay, and complication rates.

Of the 62 laparoscopic patients, there were 9 converted patients (14% conversion rate). There were no perioperative deaths, and no anastomotic leaks. The average length of operating room time was 190 minutes (range, 96-295 min). The median length of hospital stay was 4 days (range, 3-17 d). There were 40 laparoscopic patients for colon cancer. The resection margins all were negative, and the mean number of lymph nodes in the resected specimen was 17 (range, 5-37). The overall complication rate was 18%.

This study showed that laparoscopic colon surgery is technically feasible in a community hospital. The results from this study are similar to the published literature from university/academic institutions.