Laparoscopic colon surgery: our results.

Formerly, the laparoscopic surgery was accepted as a method of choice for benign diseases, and for palliative operations in progressive stages of malignant diseases of the colon. Today, the laparoscopic surgery of the colon has been also adopted in treating malignant diseases. The first laparoscopic colon resection was performed in our Clinic on December 12, 2002, and 114 patients have been successfully operated until June 1, 2007. Among those 114 patients 56 were men and 57 were women with the average age 65 (ranging from 28-86) years. A series of various laparoscopic operations have been performed for malignant disease mainly (almost 80%). The pre-surgical treatment, preparation of patients and the types of the operations were identical to those applied in patients treated by open surgery. Patients with colon carcinoma have been operated on with the principles of oncologic radicality. In post-operative period we encountered eight complications (four minor and four major) with only one fatal outcome. According to our experience and the facts found in literature, the results of laparoscopic colon surgery are comparable with open surgery.