Transanal Minimally Invasive Surgery Versus Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection for Rectal Lesions: A Community Hospital Experience.

Background: To compare tumor margins and surgical outcomes between transanal minimally invasive surgery (TAMIS) and endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) for large or malignant rectal adenomatous polyps. Methods: Single institution retrospective analysis of patients who underwent TAMIS or ESD surgery. Results: In total, 30 consecutive patients with similar demographics who underwent either TAMIS (n = 19) or ESD (n = 11) were included. The median (interquartile range, IQR) tumor distances from the anal verge for TAMIS and ESD were 5 cm (3.5-8) and 3 cm (2-4.25) (P = 0.016). Four in TAMIS and two in ESD occupied more than half of the circumference of the bowel lumen. Five (four in situ and one stage 1) in TAMIS and two (one in situ and one stage 1) in ESD were malignant. The median specimen length, width, and height were 3.2 cm, 2.6 cm, and 1.0 cm and 3.5 cm, 2.0 cm, and 0.3 cm for TAMIS and ESD, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in tumor circumference, malignant ratios, or specimen sizes. Resection margins were involved in two of the ESD, while none of the TAMIS were involved (P = 0.041). The median (IQR) operative time was 72 (62-89) minutes and 120 (90-180) minutes for TAMIS and ESD (P = 0.005). The median (IQR) follow-up time was 3.3 (0.3-11.7) and 0.9 (0.3-15.4) months for TAMIS and ESD. There were no morbidities, no mortalities, or local recurrences among the two groups. Conclusions: Both TAMIS and ESD were found to be feasible and safe in community hospital practice. Operative time was shorter, and there were no involved margins in TAMIS (versus ESD).

Risk factors for delayed perineal wound healing and its impact on prolonged hospital stay after abdominoperineal resection.

BACKGROUND: Perineal wound complications are a long-lasting issue for abdominoperineal resection (APR) patients. Complication rates as high as 60% have been reported, with the most common complication being delayed perineal wound healing. The aim of this study was to identify risk factors for delayed perineal wound healing and its impact on prolonged hospital stay. METHODS: We included low rectal tumor patients who underwent APR at a referral medical center from April 2002 to December 2017; a total of 229 patients were included. The basic characteristics and surgical outcomes of the patients were analyzed to identify risk factors for delayed perineal wound healing (> 30 days after APR) and prolonged hospital stay (post-APR hospital stay > 14 days). RESULTS: All patients received primary closure for their perineal wound. The majority of patients were diagnosed with adenocarcinoma (N = 213, 93.1%). In the univariate analysis, patients with hypoalbuminemia (albumin < 3.5 g/dL) had an increased risk of delayed wound healing (39.5% vs. 60.5%, P = 0.001), which was an independent risk factor in the multivariable analysis (OR 2.962, 95% CI 1.437-6.102, P = 0.003). Patients with delayed wound healing also had a significantly increased risk of prolonged hospital stay (OR 6.404, 95% CI 3.508-11.694, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Hypoalbuminemia was an independent risk factor for delayed wound healing, which consequently led to a prolonged hospital stay. Further clinical trials are needed to reduce the incidence of delayed perineal wound healing by correcting albumin levels or nutritional status before APR.

Molecular and Clinicopathological Differences by Age at the Diagnosis of Colorectal Cancer.

We compared the clinicopathological and molecular profiles between different age groups of sporadic colorectal cancer (CRC) patients (age <50, 56-60, 60-70, 70-80, and >80); 1475 CRC patients were enrolled after excluding 30 individuals with Lynch syndrome. The mutation spectra for APC, TP53, KRAS, PIK3CA, FBXW7, BRAF, NRAS, HRAS, TGFbR, Akt1, and PTEN were analyzed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), followed by MassArray and microsatellite (MSI-high) analysis by performing genotyping. Male patients (74.1%) were significantly predominant to females (25.9%) in the older age group (70-80, >80). There was an insignificantly linear trend between TNM staging and age-onset of CRC diagnosis. Patients aged < 50 had 58.7% diseases in the advanced stages (Stage III: 36.5% and IV: 22.2% respectively), while this decreased to 40.2% (Stage III: 26.2% and IV; 14.0% respectively) in patients >80. The distributions of mutation frequency were similar in majority of the genes studied among different age groups. Additionally, patients aged <50 had significantly higher frequency of MSI-high, PTEN, and HRAS mutations than those of other groups. Age-onset at diagnosis significantly affected overall survival (HR = 1.46; 95% CI: 1.35-1.58), but not cancer-specific survival (HR = 1.08; 95% CI: 0.99-1.18) in multivariate analysis. In conclusion, molecular and clinicopathological differences were not as significant among different age groups of CRC patients as previously suspected.