Short- and long-term outcomes of laparoscopic complete mesocolic excision for transverse colon cancer

To compare the short- and long-term outcomes of open and laparoscopic complete mesocolic excision (CME) for transverse colon cancer (TCC) using propensity score matching (PSM).

The clinical and follow-up data of 97 TCC patients who were subjected to CME in our institution from January 2012 to October 2017 were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were divided into the laparoscopic and open group according to the surgical approaches. The patients were 1:1 matched using the PSM method. The matching variables included age, sex, body mass index (BMI), clinical stage, and American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score. Forty-three patients were included in each study group. Short- and long-term outcomes were compared between the two groups.

Compared with the open group, the laparoscopic group showed benefits including less intraoperative blood loss, faster postoperative recovery, and shorter hospital stay. There was no significant difference in the incidence of 30- day postoperative complications, the incidence of major complications, and the pathological results between the two groups. The intraoperative and postoperative 30-day mortality rates in both groups were 0%. There was no significant difference in the tumor recurrence rate, 5-year overall survival (OS), and 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) between the two groups.

Short-term outcomes were better with laparoscopic CME than with open surgery although the long-term outcomes were similar in both groups.