Laparoscopic surgery of colon cancer : state of art and literature review

Over the past decade advances in laparoscopic surgery have revolutionized the surgical approach to many diseases. Although the first case series on laparoscopic segmental colectomy in patient with sigmoid cancer was described in 1991, this technique has not been readily accepted. Despite reduced morbidity and improved convalescence after laparoscopic surgery for benign disorders, surgeons have been sceptical about similar advantages of laparoscopic colectomy for cancer. The safety of the procedure has been questioned because of early reports of port-site metastases and there has been uncertainty about whether minimally invasive surgery for colonic malignancies would achieve adequate oncologic resection. Open surgical resection of the primary tumor, until just recently; has been widely considered the most effective treatment of colon can-cer. The adherence to the principles of complete abdominal exploration, high ligation of mesenteric vessels, lymphnodal clearance and adequate bowel resection margins is essential. Several randomized trials were initiated in the early 1990s to compare the short- and long-term outcomes of patients undergoing minimally invasive and conventional open surgery for colon cancer. Today the results of this large multiinstitutional randomized trials have been reported. This review examines recent data from randomized, controlled trials and meta-analysis, that report the short- and long-term outcomes after laparoscopic colectomy for cancer. Copyright