Minilaparotomy to rectal cancer has higher overall survival rate and earlier short-term recovery

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of the mini-laparotomy and traditional laparotomy groups

	Minilaparotomy (n = 410)	Traditional laparotomy (n = 1005)	P value
Gender			0.125
Male	273 (66.6)	635 (63.2)
Female	137 (33.4)	370 (36.8)
Age (yr)	61.2 ± 12.1	57.8 ± 12.4	0.385
BMI (kg/m2)	21.3 ± 3.0	22.0 ± 2.9	0.331
Distance to dentate line (cm)	8.2 ± 3.2	7.2 ± 4.0	0.118

BMI: Body mass index.

Table 2 Surgical and pathological findings for the mini-laparotomy and traditional laparotomy groups

	Minilaparotomy	Traditional laparotomy	P value
TNM stage			0.838
Stage I	47 (11.5)	119 (11.8)
Stage II	127 (31.0)	320 (31.8)
Stage III	151 (36.8)	379 (37.7)
Stage IV	85 (20.7)	187 (18.6)
Differentiation			0.579
Good	105 (25.6)	240 (23.9)
Moderate	172 (42.0)	411 (40.9)
Poor	133 (32.4)	354 (35.2)
Histologic types			0.277
Adenocarcinoma	337	811
Mucinous adenocacinoma	69	164
Squamous carcinoma	4	30
Operation types			0.640
High anterior resection	20 (4.9)	38 (3.8)
Low anterior resection	124 (30.2)	284 (28.3)
Ultralow anterior resection	189 (46.1)	482 (48.0)
Colo-anal anastomosis	77 (18.8)	201 (20.0)
Volume of bleeding (mL)	78.5 ± 30.0	80.8 ± 28.5	0.940
Operation time (min)	115.5 ± 35.8	114.6 ± 33.4	0.217
Lymph node counts	12.4	12.7	0.796
Proximal margin of distance (cm)	3.5	3.3	0.105
Distal margin of distance (cm)	7.0	6.9	0.780

TNM: Tumor-node-metastasis. Data are presented as n (%) or mean ± SD.

Table 3 Postoperative recovery of the two groups

	Minilaparotomy group	Traditional laparotomy group	P value
Recovery
Aerofluxus (d)	3.5 ± 1.1	4.3 ± 1.8	0.000
Oral feeding (d)	4.1 ± 1.2	4.6 ± 1.2	0.628
Defecation (d)	5.0 ± 1.4	5.4 ± 1.5	0.370
Ambulation (d)	3.2 ± 0.8	3.9 ± 2.3	0.000
Hospital stay (d)	6.4 ± 1.5	9.7 ± 2.2	0.000
POSSUM scores (%)
Predictive mortality	28.1	26.8	0.738
Predictive morbidity	5.3	5.0	0.844
Complications
Gastric retention	8 (2.0)	18 (1.8)	0.494
Incision infection	6 (1.5)	15 (1.5)	0.592
Pulmonary infection	5 (1.2)	14 (1.4)	0.513
Anastomosis leakage	2 (0.5)	48 (4.8)	0.000
Intestinal obstruction	9 (2.2)	73 (7.3)	0.000
Other	13 (3.2)	35 (3.5)	0.456

POSSUM: Physiologic and operative severity score for the enumeration of mortality and morbidity.

Table 4 Colorectal cancer surgery study results regarding local recurrence and survival rates (%)

Another preference	Local recurrence	Survival rate
Our study	1.4	79.7
Andreoni et al[30]	8.2	71.0
Law et al[31]	9.6	66.5
Jung et al[7]	8.0	62.0