[The development and challenge of colorectal surgery]

In the past, people summarized and invented a series of surgical procedures for the treatment of colorectal cancer after continuous thinking and exploration. Some of these surgical procedures, such as Miles, Dixon, and Hartmann procedures, are considered to be classic and still in use today. In general, the surgical development has gone through roughly four stages: palliative surgery, radical surgery, extended radical surgery, and tumor functional surgery. As far as the surgical procedure of colorectal surgery is concerned, it mainly includes five elements: surgical approach, intestinal segment resection, degree of lymph node dissection, digestive tract reconstruction, and specimen removal. Only by fully understanding the five elements of surgical procedures and seeking for variables from them can innovation be achieved and benefit patients. This article will discuss the evolution of colorectal surgery according to development of medicine and surgery. "Taking history as a mirror, we can know the rise and fall." Only by correctly understanding history can we objectively understand the nature of things and the laws of their development. This is true for humans, and it is true for medicine.