[Transanal endoscopic microsurgery: technique and clinical results].

A new system has been developed for transanal endoscopic microsurgery (TEM), which allows all the conventional surgical techniques within the rectal cavity. The main indication is the removal of sessile adenomas. "Early rectal carcinomas" are also suitable for local excision. We perform local excision of advanced cancer only in cases where a contraindication exists to perform radical surgery or when the patients is unwilling to undergo demolitive surgery. The system has been employed at our Surgical Department on 206 patients in 223 cases. In 192 cases (87.7%) only one local excision was carried out due to sufficient excision as confirmed by histology (including patients with early "low risk" cancer). the postoperative course of 208 cases (93.3%) was free from any complications. The recurrence rate of adenomas amounted to 5.2%. This technique is particularly applicable for elderly, high risk patients and those with broad based adenomas so that anterior resection, abdominoperineal resection or other invasive operations can be avoided.