The impact of general/visceral obesity on completion of mesorectum and perioperative outcomes of laparoscopic TME for rectal cancer

To evaluate the impact of visceral obesity on laparoscopic total mesorectal excision (TME) and decide the best index to reflect completion of mesorectum and perioperative outcomes.Patients with rectal cancer who underwent laparoscopic TME were enrolled. The data including body mass index (BMI), visceral fat area (VFA), visceral fat area/body surface area (VFA/BSA), mesorectum fat ratio (MFR), pelvic fat area (PFA), pelvic fat ratio (PFR), completion of mesorectum, and other perioperative outcomes were collected. Data were analyzed.A total of 322 patients were enrolled between 2011 and 2014. There was no significantly difference between the BMI groups on completion of mesorectum and other outcomes (P ≥ 0.05). However, in VFA groups, completion of mesorectum (P = 0.002), operative time (P = 0.02), and incision length (P = 0.02) were significantly different. In VFA/BSA groups, completion of mesorectum (P = 0.002) and incision length (P = 0.009) were significantly different. When MFR was equal to 0.48, completion of mesorectum (P = 0.002), operative time (P = 0.001), incision length (P = 0.03), and blood loss (P = 0.04) were significantly different between the 2 groups. In PFA and PFR groups, there was no significantly difference (P ≥ 0.05). After the analysis of logistic regression, only VFA was the risk factor of incomplete mesorectum excision.BMI does not reflect the impact of obesity on laparoscopic rectal surgery. VFA is a better index in predicting the influence of visceral obesity on surgical quality and difficulty of laparoscopic rectal surgery than VFA/BSA and MFR.