Transanal approach for intersphincteric resection of rectal cancer in a patient with a huge prostatic hypertrophy

The gold standard of surgical technique for rectal cancer is total mesorectal excision (TME). Laparoscopic TME has been proven to provide surgical safety and oncological outcomes equivalent to open TME. However, dissection of the lower rectum has some inherent difficulties related to a narrow pelvic space. The challenge of TME in the lower rectum was confirmed by the Colorectal Cancer Laparoscopic or Open Resection (COLOR) II trial showing a 9% positive circumferential margin (CRM) rate in laparoscopic TME and a 22% positive CRM rate in open TME. Recently, transanal TME has attracted intense attention as a promising alternative to laparoscopic TME. In this video article, we show the performance of a transanal approach for intersphincteric resection (ISR) of rectal cancer in a patient with a huge prostatic hypertrophy. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13691-016-0272-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.