Totally robotic surgery for rectal cancer with transanal specimen extraction        ZHANG Xue-feng, LV Chi, ZHANG Cheng, et al. Department of General Surgery, General Hospital of Shenyang Military Region, Shenyang 110015, China
Corresponding author: LI Jin, E-mail: lvlinger92@gmail.com
Abstract    Objective    To investigate the clinical experience of transanal specimen extraction with robot-sewn anastomosis technique. Methods    The clinical data of 16 cases performed rectal cancer resection by the da Vinci robotic system with transanal specimen extraction and robot-sewn anastomosis technique between July 2012 and December 2012 in General Hospital of Shenyang Military Region were analyzed retrospectively.  Results    There were 9 males and 7 females with age 46-84 years old，and BMI 18.8-28.8 kg/m2. All the cases（13 cases of rectal cancer, 2 cases of rectal villous tubular adenomas, 1 case of rectal carcinoid tumors） were performed robotic surgery successfully without intraoperative conversion．The operative time was 160-610 min [mean (220.4±24.5)min]. The blood loss was below 50mL. The time to first flatus was 18-74 hours [mean (27.3±7.5)hours] postoperatively. The postoperative hospital stay was 5-10 days [mean (6.2±2.1)days]. The number of lymph node harvested from the surgical specimen was 2-39 (mean 18.2±7.6)．TNM stage: 2 cases of stageⅠ, 7 cases of stage II, 4 cases of  stage Ⅲ. All the resection margins were  negative．There was no local surgical complication. Conclusion    Totally robotic surgery for rectal cancer with transanal specimen extraction is safe and feasible.