BACKGROUND Quality of Life (QoL) is a key element in rectal cancer (RC) patients. AIMS this study assesses QoL in a sample of RC patients in their treatment follow-up period, and compares surgery modalities. PATIENTS AND METHODS eighty four locally advanced RC patients who had received surgery and neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy were included in the study. Of these, 70 had adjuvant chemothera...

PURPOSE This study evaluated the efficacy of a water-soluble contrast enema (WCE) in predicting anastomotic healing after a low anterior resection (LAR). METHODS Between January 2000 and March 2012, 682 consecutive patients underwent a LAR or an ultra-low anterior resection (uLAR) and were followed up for leakage. Clinical leakage was established by using physical and laboratory findings. Rad...

BACKGROUND Preoperative radiation therapy in combination with 5-fluoracil (5-FU) improves local tumour control in locally advanced rectal cancer. The aim of our study was to evaluate the toxicity and efficacy of preoperative chemoradiation using the oral 5-FU prodrug capecitabine in locally advanced rectal cancer. METHODS Sixty patients with locally advanced rectal cancer were treated with pr...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Limited data are available comparing epidural and patient-controlled analgesia in site-specific colorectal surgery. The aim of this study was to evaluate 2 modes of analgesia in patients undergoing laparoscopic right colectomy (RC) and low anterior resection (LAR). METHODS Prospectively collected data on 433 patients undergoing laparoscopic or laparoscopic-assisted c...

To date, no studies have investigated the estimated blood loss (EBL) after full robotic low anterior resection (R-LAR) in a case-matched model, comparing it with the conventional open approach (O-LAR). Forty-nine patients in the R-LAR and 105 in the O-LAR group were matched for age, gender, BMI (body mass index), ASA (American Society of Anesthesiology) class, tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) classi...

OBJECTIVES To determine hospital resource utilization, associated costs and the risk of complications during hospitalization for four types of surgical resections and to estimate the incremental burden among patients with cancer compared to those without cancer. METHODS Patients (≥18 years old) were identified from the Premier Research Database of US hospitals if they had any of the following...

Low anterior resection syndrome (LARS) is the distressful defecatory functional problem after sphincter-saving surgery for rectal cancer. Although symptoms of fecal urgency, frequency, and incontinence may develop in most patients surgery, there no definitive treatments LARS. Multifactorial etiologies various risk factors have been identified, but reduction storage capacity rectum one main reas...

Purpose The aim of this study was to identify the risk factors of stoma re-creation after closure of diverting ileostomy in patients with rectal cancer who underwent low anterior resection (LAR) or intersphincteric resection (ISR) with loop ileostomy. Methods We retrospectively reviewed 520 consecutive patients with rectal cancer who underwent LAR or ISR with loop ileostomy from January 2005 ...

BACKGROUND A generally acceptable definition and a severity grading system for anastomotic leakages (ALs) following rectal resection were not available until 2010, when the International Study Group of Rectal Cancer (ISGRC) proposed a definition and a grading system for AL. METHODS A search for published data was performed using the MEDLINE database (2000 to December 5, 2012) to perform a sys...

BACKGROUND Low anterior resection (LAR) may result in faecal incontinence. This study aimed to identify risk factors for long-term faecal incontinence after total mesorectal excision (TME) with or without preoperative radiotherapy (PRT). METHODS Between 1996 and 1999, patients with operable rectal cancer were randomized to TME with or without PRT. Eligible patients who underwent LAR were stud...