Colorectal cancer complications of laparoscopic resection

Introduction: The authors report their experiences with laparoscopic resection for colorectal cancer. They assess the type of peroperative and early postoperative surgical complications. Material and methods: From 1st January 2002 to 31th December 2005, the team of authors operated 457 patients with colorectal cancer. In 350 patients, the laparoscopic resection was completed. Patients who had undergone an open procedure and patients who had undergone colostomy, or a by-pass procedure, were excluded from the study group. Results: In 32 (9.2%) patients (of the total 350 laparoscopic resections), the laparoscopic procedure was converted. The rate of perioperative complications was 4.0% (14 patients) and the rate of early postoperative surgical complications was 13.1% (46 patients). Five patients in our study group exited before the postoperative day 30. Two of these cases were directly related to surgical postoperative complications. Conclusion: Laparoscopic resection is a method which could be safely use in patients with colorectal cancer. This approach does not have any bigger incidence of peroperative and early surgical postoperative complications than open resection.