[Low anterior resection in the curative surgical treatment of rectal cancer]

Abdominoperineal resections for rectal cancer are being performed with decreasing frequency in favour of sphincter-saving resections. It remains to be demonstrated that sphincter preservation has not resulted in compromised local disease control, disease-free survival and survival. For this purpose 315 patients with rectal carcinoma have been studied. In 44 cases (13.9%) it was only possible to perform a colostomy; a curative resection has been carried out in 206 (65.3%). Sphincter-saving procedure was performed whenever possible: the length of margin of resection was at least 2 cm. The operation were: 61 abdominoperineal excisions (AP), 135 anterior resections (AR), 10 transanal excisions (excluded from this analysis). The distribution of tumors in the various Duke's stages was: Dukes A--28 patients, Dukes B--143, Dukes C--35. The thirty-days mortality was 6 patients (9.8%) for AP and 6 (4.4%) for AR. Local recurrence was: AP 9 cases (16.1%), AR 16 cases (12.4%); for tumors 4-8 cm from anal verge recurrence was 18.7% for AP, 17.1% for AR. Concerning staging, local recurrence was more common in the Dukes C stage (36%) than in the Dukes B (11.2%) or in the Dukes A (3.7%). 5 years survival after AP was 54.6 percent and after AR 57.9 percent. Concluding, in our experience, there was no significant relationship between local recurrence or survival and type of curative surgery (AP or AR). Local recurrence and survival were only related to tumor stage (p less than 0.01): lateral tumor extension in these advanced and aggressive lesions appears to be the major determinant of local recurrence.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)