Editor: Maria Kapritsou. Received: June 18, 2014; rev From the Section of Colon a SHB, KYL, NKK), Departm tion Unit (DWK), Yonsei Uni Correspondence: Seung Hy University College of Me 120-752, Korea (e-mail: w The authors have no funding Copyright © 2014 Wolters Wilkins. This is an open ac Commons Attribution-NonCo it is permissible to downlo medium, provided it is prop any way or used commerci...

BACKGROUND Recent studies have shown that a protective stoma can reduce morbidity in low anterior resection for rectal cancer; however, the necessity of it is still controversially discussed. METHODS We performed this meta-analysis to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the role of defunctioning stoma in low anterior resection for rectal cancer on the rates of anastomotic leakage and reoper...

UNLABELLED The aim of the study was to assess the impact of hospital caseload on long-term outcomes of rectal cancer patients. We posed two questions: 1. Does the number of operations carried out in the surgical department influence five year survival and local recurrence rates? 2. Does surgery alone without adjuvant therapy performed in the particular department affect long-term results? MAT...