Equivalency of lymph node harvest in laparoscopic versus open colorectal cancer procedures: an early surgeon's perspective
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 4, 2026
Clinical Application of Single-Surgeon, Three-Port, Laparoscopic Resection for Colorectal Cancer with Natural Orifice Specimen Extraction
Published on: March 24, 2023
Justin Dallas Rivard1, David J Hochman
1Department of Surgery, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. justindrivard@gmail.com
Purpose:
To compare the number of lymph nodes harvested in laparoscopic versus open colorectal cancer surgery early in a surgeon's career.
Methods:
We reviewed the data of 80 patients operated upon with a primary diagnosis of colorectal cancer between September 2006 and June 2008. All data were from a single fellowship trained colorectal surgeon. The effects of laparoscopic versus open surgery, and neoadjuvant radiation were examined to assess lymph node harvest.
Results:
There was no statistically significant difference between the lymph nodes harvested during laparoscopic versus open surgery (17.4 vs 18.5; P=0.5920). The amount of lymph nodes harvested decreased with increasing American Society of Anesthesiology grade (22.4, 17.1, 19.2, 7.0 for American Society of Anesthesiology grade I, II, III, IV, respectively; P=0.0412) and with neoadjuvant radiotherapy (18.7 vs 13.2; P=0.0151).
Conclusions:
Laparoscopic colorectal cancer surgery results in the same number of lymph nodes being harvested as in open surgery.
