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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Mar 15, 2016; 8(3): 235-239
Published online Mar 15, 2016. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v8.i3.235
Complete mesocolic excision: Lessons from anatomy translating to better oncologic outcome
Min-Hua Zheng, Sen Zhang, Bo Feng
Min-Hua Zheng, Sen Zhang, Bo Feng, Shanghai Minimally Invasive Surgery Center, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200025, China
Author contributions: All authors equally contributed to the conception and design of the paper, literature review and analysis, drafting and critical revision and editing, and final approval of the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no potential conflicts of interest or financial support.
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: Bo Feng, MD, PhD, Shanghai Minimally Invasive Surgery Center, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, No. 197, Ruijin Er Road, Shanghai 200025, China. fengbo2022@163.com
Telephone: +86-21-63846590 Fax: +86-21-63846590
Received: August 18, 2015
Peer-review started: August 18, 2015
First decision: September 25, 2015
Revised: October 13, 2015
Accepted: December 18, 2015
Article in press: December 21, 2015
Published online: March 15, 2016
Processing time: 202 Days and 13.7 Hours
Abstract

Since the introduction of complete mesocolic excision (CME) for colon cancer, the oncologic outcome of patients has been greatly improved, which has led to a longer survival and a lower recurrence, just like the total mesorectum excision for rectal cancer. Despite the fact that the exact anatomy of the organ is one of the most vital things for surgeons to conduct surgery, no team has really studied the exact structure of the mesocolon and related attachments for CME, until the mesocolonic anatomy was first formally characterized in 2012. Therefore, this article mainly focuses on the anatomy development of the mesocolon and the achievement in this field. Meanwhile, we introduce the latest progress in laparoscopic surgery for colon cancer achieved by our team.

Keywords: Colorectal cancer; “Page-turning” approach; Laparoscopic surgery; Complete mesocolic excision; Toldt’s fascia

Core tip: Despite that complete mesocolic excision (CME) has been conducted for many years, leading to a better outcome in colon cancer patients, there are limited studies on the structure of the mesocolon or related attachments, which is of great importance for surgeons to carry out surgery, until K. Culligan first formally characterized the mesocolonic anatomy, explaining the reason why CME would have a better oncologic outcome. Meanwhile, based on the exact anatomy of mesocolon, we introduce the latest progress in laparoscopic surgery for colon cancer achieved by our team, such as “page-turning” approach, and we also list the most important structure related to the CME.