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Updated: Jun 25, 2026
Intraoperative Assessment of Resection Margins in Oral Cavity Cancer: This is the Way
Published on: May 10, 2021
Ultrasound assessment of the distal resection margin during robotic rectal surgery
Giuseppe Giuliani1, Francesco Matarazzo1, Francesco Guerra1
1Department of General and Urgent Surgery, Misericordia Hospital, School of Robotic Surgery, USL Toscana Sud Est, Grosseto, Italy.
Aim:
Ensuring an adequate distal resection margin (DRM) is a key factor in achieving the gold standard in surgical treatment for rectal surgery. The aim of this article is to describe our surgical technique and the usefulness of intraoperative ultrasonography (IOUS) for evaluating the DRM during robotic rectal surgery (RRS).
Method:
Prospective data on five consecutive patients with rectal cancer who underwent RRS between January 2023 and December 2023 were collected. IOUS was utilized to evaluate the DRM in all patients.
Results:
The mean time for the IOUS examination ranged from 5 to 10 min. There were no intraoperative complications or conversions to open surgery. The median length of hospital stay was 6.4 days (±1.67 days). During hospitalization, one patient experienced a Grade II complication according to the Clavien-Dindo classification, specifically postoperative ileus. Furthermore, one patient experienced a delayed anastomotic fistula, which was conservatively treated without readmission. At definitive pathology, the median distance of the tumour from the DRM was 29 mm (±1.41 mm) and all patients had an R0 resection.
Conclusion:
IOUS is a reproducible and helpful modality for identifying the distal margin of the cutting line during robotic resection of rectal cancers. It does not affect the operating time compared with other methods and could be an alternative method for assessment of the DRM during RRS.
