Oncological outcome after laparoscopic abdominoperineal excision of the rectum

Abdominoperineal excision of the rectum (APER) for cancer has been associated with higher circumferential resection margin (CRM) involvement and failure of local disease control. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the introduction of laparoscopic APER altered the incidence of CRM involvement.

Consecutive patients undergoing open or laparoscopic APER for adenocarcinomas of the rectum were studied. Patient demographics, preoperative staging, neoadjuvant treatment, operative findings, length of stay and pathological details were collected from operative and radiology databases and compared.

There were 16 laparoscopic and 25 open APER performed over a 3-year period. Neoadjuvant therapy was given to 43.8% (7/16) of the laparoscopic group and 56.0% (14/25) of the open group. Complete laparoscopic resection was possible in 14 (87.5%) of 16 patients. The median harvested number of nodes was 14 (4-33) in both groups. The median length of stay was 7 (3-13) and 15 (9-40) days in the laparoscopic and open groups (P < 0.001). The CRM was clear in all cases. There was no local recurrence in either group at a median follow-up of 23 months. There were no in-hospital deaths and no significant differences in overall survival. There were no significant differences in preoperative or postoperative histopathological T stage between the two groups (P = 0.057 and P = 0.121).

Laparoscopic APER for selected rectal cancers can achieve comparable oncological outcome to open surgery but is associated with a much shorter length of stay. Patient and tumour characteristics must be taken into consideration when deciding on a laparoscopic approach for low rectal cancer.