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Updated: Jun 12, 2026
Robot-assisted Total Mesorectal Excision and Lateral Pelvic Lymph Node Dissection for Locally Advanced Middle-low Rectal Cancer
Published on: February 12, 2022
Practicability of quality goals for the treatment of rectal cancer
Sigmar Stelzner1, Gunter Hellmich, Gunter Haroske
1Department of General and Visceral Surgery, Dresden-Friedrichstadt General Hospital, Teaching Hospital of the Technical University of Dresden, Friedrichstr. 41, 01067 Dresden, Germany. Stelzner-Si@khdf.de
Purpose:
In 2007, the German Working Group "Workflow Rectal Cancer II" published 19 quality indicators with 36 quality goals for the treatment of rectal cancer. We investigate whether these parameters are practicable in a specialized coloproctologic unit.
Patients And Methods:
We included 578 consecutive patients with rectal cancer who were treated in our institution from January 2000 to December 2008. Patient data were collected in a prospective database. Follow-up was conducted in a colorectal tumor clinic. Data were analyzed for the defined reference groups, and the results were compared with the quality goals.
Results:
Median follow-up was 54.4 (range 1-116) months. We achieved 19 of the 36 defined quality goals. Among these were important parameters such as the rate of postoperative mortality (0.9%), the rate of intraoperative local tumor perforation (2.2% for anterior resection and 8.5% for abdominoperineal excision), the 5-year local recurrence rate (5.9% stages I-III), and the 5-year overall survival rates for stages yII and II (79.9%), and stages yIII and III (60.7%) for patients with microscopically negative resection margins.
Conclusion:
Most of the defined quality goals can be achieved in a specialized coloproctologic unit. The debate on quality goals has the potential to enable further improvement in the care of rectal cancer patients.
