Simplifying Laparoscopic Surgery for Left Side Colon and Rectal Cancer Using Linear Stapler for Vascular Ligation: A Prospective Cohort Study

Introduction: Systematic lymphadenectomy and ligation of the feeding artery is extremely important when performing radical resection in colorectal cancer. However, vascular surgery via laparoscopy requires advanced skills and techniques; thus, this procedure needs to be simplified while maintaining quality of the surgery to make it a preferred technique for the surgeons. Methods: There were 49 patients who underwent laparoscopic sigmoidectomy or anterior resection till T2 level for sigmoid colon cancer and recto-sigmoid colon cancer. We analyzed short-term and long-term outcomes between stapling ligation and clipping ligation techniques used in these surgeries. Results: The mean volume of blood loss in the stapling ligation group was 12.8 ± 12.3 ml, which was significantly lower than 41.9 ± 71.2 ml of mean volume of blood loss in the clipping ligation group. There was no significant difference in the mean duration of surgery, the mean number of harvested lymph nodes, morbidity, recurrence, and 5-year relapse free survival rates between the 2 groups. Conclusions: This study demonstrates a surgical technique using staplers for vascular treatment of tumor-feeding arteries as a new technical improvement in laparoscopic colectomy for the treatment of early-stage colon cancer. We found that the described procedure was technically safe, simple, convenient, and oncologically valid.