The efficacy of intraoperative colonoscopy in the treatment of left side colorectal cancer

Abstract

Purpose : We have performed intraoperative colonoscopy for colorectal resection with transanal stapled anastomosis to eliminate intra- and postoperative complications. In this study, we report the efficacy of this technique.
Results : We performed intraoperative colonoscopy in 570 transanal stapled anastomoses from a total of 731 left-side colon or rectal cancer cases in our department between January 2006 and August 2014. A total of 13 (2.3%) patients showed abnormal findings (imperfect anastomosis ; 3, bleeding ; 1, leakage test positive ; 9) and anastomotic leakage occurred in 5 patients.
Conclusions : Intraoperative colonoscopy is beneficial because the staple line and anastomotic bleeding can be directly observed, we could perform preventative procedures to avoid further abnormalities, postoperative complications or to maintain a good quality of life (QOL) of the patients postoperatively. Our evaluation of intraoperative colonoscopy as reported in this study shows that this technique can decrease postoperative anastomotic complications.