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World J Gastroenterol. Oct 7, 2016; 22(37): 8304-8313
Published online Oct 7, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i37.8304
Conversion of laparoscopic colorectal resection for cancer: What is the impact on short-term outcomes and survival?
Marco E Allaix, Edgar J B Furnée, Massimiliano Mistrangelo, Alberto Arezzo, Mario Morino
Marco E Allaix, Edgar J B Furnée, Massimiliano Mistrangelo, Alberto Arezzo, Mario Morino, Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Torino, 10126 Torino, Italy
Author contributions: Allaix ME and Furnée EJB contributed equally to this work; Allaix ME, Furnée EJB, Mistrangelo M, Arezzo A and Morino M designed and performed the research; Allaix ME and Furnée EJB analyzed the data and drafted the paper; Mistrangelo M, Arezzo A and Morino M critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content; all authors approved the final version of the article for publication.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Mario Morino, MD, Professor, Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Torino, Corso A. M. Dogliotti, 14, 10126 Torino, Italy. mario.morino@unito.it
Telephone: +39-11-6313159 Fax: +39-11-6312548
Received: April 27, 2016
Peer-review started: April 29, 2016
First decision: June 20, 2016
Revised: July 21, 2016
Accepted: August 5, 2016
Article in press: August 5, 2016
Published online: October 7, 2016
Processing time: 155 Days and 22.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Several randomized controlled trials have reported the short-term advantages of laparoscopic resection compared to open resection for both colon and rectal cancer. In addition, there is evidence showing the non-inferiority of the laparoscopic approach in colon and rectal cancer surgery in long-term survival. Conversion to open surgery has been reported in up to 30% of laparoscopic colorectal cancer resections. However, both short and long-term outcomes in these patients are unclear. Therefore, we discuss the currently available evidence of the impact of conversion of laparoscopic resection for colon and rectal cancer on both short-term outcomes and long-term survival.