Soterios George Panousopoulos*, Panayiotis Lazarides, Georgios Panousis, Doukakis Paradellis, Nikolaos Boltsis and Constantinos Mavrantonis
6th Surgical Department, Hygeia Hospital, Athens, Greece
*Corresponding Author: Soterios George Panousopoulos, 6th Surgical Department, Hygeia Hospital, Athens, Greece.
Received: April 30, 2021; Published: May 17, 2021
Citation: Soterios George Panousopoulos., et al. “Specimen Quality of Transanal Total Mesorectal Excision (TaTME)". Acta Scientific Gastrointestinal Disorders 5.6 (2021): 48-50.
Introduction: Total mesorectal excision of the rectum (TME), has been the gold standard of rectal cancer treatment since its introduction in the 1980s, greatly improving oncologic outcomes for rectal cancer patients. Minimally invasive adapatations of TME have proved to be non-inferior to the open technique. For tumors of the distal third of the rectum, however, TME continues to present significant difficulty. The advent of transanal surgery has led to Transanal Total Mesorectal Excision (TaTME), in an effort to better facilitate complete excision, while preserving the desired oncologic results.
Aim: In this study we present our experience with TaTME in 52 cases of rectal cancer patients, who were treated at our department.
Patients and Methods: Between March 2018 and December 2020, 52 patients underwent TaTME for rectal cancer, performed by a single surgeon and surgical team. Pathology reports were compared to those of 48 patients who underwent laparoscopic TaSE TME by the same team between 2012 and 2019. Circumferential Resection Margin (CRM), and completeness of TME, were considered.
Results: Combined, in the TaTME group, “complete” and “nearly complete” TME specimens were documented in 92.3% of cases. In the TaSE group, the combined “complete” and “nearly complete” specimens were 89.6% (no statistical significance- p = 0.804844). In the CRM involvement investigation, pathology reported 46 cases (88.5%) of free CRM, and 6 cases (11.5%) of involved CRM in the TaTME group (n = 52). In the TaSE group (n = 48), there were 41 cases (85.4%) of free CRM and 7 cases (14.6%) of involved CRM (no statistical significance- p = 0.678986).
Conclusion: Our experience with TaTME shows that it is an acceptable TME procedure, delivering excellent results as far as operative quality is concerned. Although hampered by a steep learning curve, it seems that TaTME is safe and efficient enough when performed in a specialized setting, and at least non-inferior to other TME approaches as far as specimen quality is concerned.
Keywords: TaTME; Transanal TME; Rectal Cancer; TME Specimen Grading; TME; Total Mesorectal Excision
Copyright: © Soterios George Panousopoulos., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.