Short-term outcomes of laparoscopy surgery for colorectal cancer:a comparative study

Objective To investigate the short-term outcomes and oncological safety of laparoscopy resection for colorectal cancer. Methods Between January 2004 and March 2009, 35 patients with colorectal cancer underwent laparoscopic-assisted surgery in our hospital, among which 32 underwent radical resection, 1 underwent laparoscopic exploration, and 2 were converted to open surgery. These patients were allocated in the laparoscopic group. Same numbers of patients who underwent conventional open surgery during the same period of time were identified and allocated in the open group. Short-term data, including surgical time, intra-operative blood loss, intra-operative blood transfusion, length of incision, histopathological data, post-operative complications and post-operative functions, were collected and compared between the two groups. Results A total of 67 patients were enrolled (32 in both laparoscopy and open groups). The other 3 cases were analyzed separately (1 underwent laparoscopic exploration and 2 converted to open surgery). The two groups were well balanced as to age, gender, and TNM staging and location of tumour. Histopathologically, the laparoscopic approach was equal to conventional approach as regard to resection margin (distal margin, 5 cm vs 5 cm, P=0.664) and lymph node yield (7 vs 8, P=0.228). This study also showed a longer surgical time (250 min vs 180 min, P=0.006), but shorter length of incision (10 cm vs 20 cm, P＜0.001), less demand of intra-operative blood transfusion (1 case vs 10 cases, P=0.003), reduced use of analgesics (12 cases vs 25 cases, P=0.004), shorter post-operative stay (9.5 days vs 11 days, P=0.008) and earlier recovery of bowel function of the laparoscopic group. There was no statistical difference of intra-operative blood loss (200 mL vs 200 mL, P=0.098), incidence of post-operative complications (8 cases vs 6 cases, P=0.545) and volume of post-operative negative drainage (507.5 mL vs 669.0 mL, P=0.475) between the two groups. Conclusions Though limited by a relatively small sample size, our study showed that laparoscopy approach for colorectal cancer is equal to open approach in terms of oncological safety and short-term outcome.