[Intraoperative diagnosis of lymph node metastases in rectal cancer]

The exact assessment of nodal status in patients with rectal cancer is very important for the implement of adequate and motivated postopertaive therapeutic behavior. The relevance of the number of lymph nodes explored, the modern pathohistological techniques for detection of micrometastases and their importance for the prognosis, survival, and recurrence of the disease in patients with rectal cancer are discussed. The main techniques applied by different authors for lymph mapping and sentinel node detection in rectal cancer are described.