Transanal down-to-up dissection of the distal rectum as a viable approach to achieve total mesorectal excision in laparoscopic sphincter-preserving surgery for rectal cancer near the anus: a study of short- and long-term outcomes of 123 consecutive patients from a single Japanese institution

Table 2 Surgical outcomes

	Total (N=123)	TARD (n=50)	TaTME (n=73)	P-value
Total operative time, minute^a	431 (291–906)	417 (291–625)	441 (317–906)	0.098
Perineal portion	122 (26–261)	95 (26–174)	145(62–261)	< 0.001
Abdominal portion	316 (179–589)	319 (214–504)	302 (179–589)	0.336
Blood loss, ml^a	110 (0–1097)	277 (0–1097)	85 (0–765)	< 0.001
No. of dissected LN, n^a	9 (0–38)	9 (2–38)	10 (0–33)	0.295
Period to catheter removal^a, day	5 (2–18)	4 (2–18)	5 (3–16)	< 0.001
Postoperative complication (C-D ≧grade 2), n (%)				0.269
Positive	52 (42.3)	18 (36.0)	34 (46.6)
Negative	71 (57.7)	32 (64.0)	39 (53.4)
Postoperative severe complication (C-D ≧grade 3), n (%)				0.910
Positive	24 (19.5)	10 (20.0)	14 (19.2)
Negative	99 (80.5)	40 (80.0)	59 (80.8)

LN lymph node, C-D the Clavien-Dindo classification, TARD transanal rectal dissection, TaTME transanal total mesorectal excision
^a Median (range)

ISSN: 1477-7819