Kulaylat MN. Mesorectal excision: Surgical anatomy of the rectum, mesorectum, and pelvic fascia and nerves and clinical relevance. World J Surg Proced 2015; 5(1): 27-40 [DOI: 10.5412/wjsp.v5.i1.27]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Mahmoud N Kulaylat, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery, Buffalo General Medical Center, Department of Surgery, State University of New York at Buffalo, 100 High Street, Buffalo, NY 14203, United States. mkulaylat@kaleidahealth.org
Research Domain of This Article
Surgery
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
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/
World J Surg Proced. Mar 28, 2015; 5(1): 27-40 Published online Mar 28, 2015. doi: 10.5412/wjsp.v5.i1.27
Mesorectal excision: Surgical anatomy of the rectum, mesorectum, and pelvic fascia and nerves and clinical relevance
Mahmoud N Kulaylat
Mahmoud N Kulaylat, Buffalo General Medical Center, Department of Surgery, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14203, United States
Author contributions: Kulaylat MN solely contributed to this manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest: The author declares there is no conflict of interest to disclose.
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: Mahmoud N Kulaylat, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery, Buffalo General Medical Center, Department of Surgery, State University of New York at Buffalo, 100 High Street, Buffalo, NY 14203, United States. mkulaylat@kaleidahealth.org
Telephone: +1-716-8592050 Fax: +1-716-8594580
Received: September 16, 2014 Peer-review started: September 18, 2014 First decision: October 16, 2014 Revised: December 10, 2014 Accepted: December 29, 2014 Article in press: December 31, 2014 Published online: March 28, 2015 Processing time: 197 Days and 18.5 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: Radical resection of rectal cancer entails removal of the rectum with its fascia as an intact unit while preserving surrounding vital structures. The procedure is technically challenging because of the complex multilayered pelvic fascia and intimate relationship between the rectum and vital surrounding structures. Despite the clear-cut “text book” description of surgical technique and straightforward manner of handling different structures in the pelvis, there are many variations and contradictory accounts reported in the literature as to the nature, anatomy and significance of some of the structures, proper plane of dissection, and the optimal technique to achieve oncological resection while decreasing urogenital and bowel dysfunction.
