Laparoscopic colorectal surgery: a prospective assessment and current perspective.

Between August 1991 and June 1993, 74 laparoscopic and laparoscopically assisted colonic and rectal operations were performed. A variety of procedures were carried out including 32 total abdominal colectomies (group 1), 32 segmental resections (group 2) and ten constructions of a diverting stoma without formal resection (group 3). Indications for surgery were mucosal ulcerative colitis in 20 patients, carcinoma in 12, polyposis in six, Crohn's disease in seven and other conditions in the remaining 29. The 74 comprised 42 male and 32 female patients of mean age 45 (range 12-88) years. The median (range) duration of the procedure was 3.0 (1.0-6.5) h for the entire group, 3.9 (2.5-6.5) h for group 1, 2.9 (1.5-5.5) h for group 2 and 1.8 (1.0-2.5) h for group 3. The median (range) length of ileus was 3.0 (2-7) days overall; respective times for groups 1-3 were 3.5 (2-7), 3.0 (2-7) and 2.0 (1-4) days. The median (range) length of hospitalization was 7.0 (2-40) days, 8.1 (4-19) days in group 1, 7.0 (4-20) days in group 2 and 6.0 (2-40) days in group 3. Ten patients (14 per cent) developed intraoperative and 15 (20 per cent) postoperative complications; there were no deaths. These results failed to confirm any significant advantages of laparoscopic or laparoscopically assisted colorectal surgery. Specifically, neither the operating time, nor length of ileus, nor length of hospitalization was improved over standard procedures. Advances in technology and surgical technique may improve such findings in the future.