Current Status of Laparoscopic Colectomy for Colon Cancer

Lee, Woo Yong

Abstract

Although laparoscopic colon resection is a widely accepted treatment for benign colon disease, many questions have been raised about its value in management of colorectal cancer. The short-term benefits of this operation, such as decreased incidence of pulmonary complications, faster return of the bowel function, decreased narcotic requirements, shortened hospital stay, and faster recovery time, are now well established. However, there are many controversies for this method as a treatment of cancer. The main issues are adequacy of oncologic resection, recurrence rates and patterns, and long-term survival. Considering the results so far reported, laparoscopic colectomy seems to be feasible and safe. Modest benefits in the quality of life are observed. Same oncologic resection can be performed laparoscopically with no adverse influence on the recurrence rate. At least, equivalent survival is obtained by laparoscopic colectomy. Even the early results of laparoscopic colectomy for cancer are encouraging, the fate of this procedure rests with the long term analysis of number of trials currently underway.