Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Surg. Dec 27, 2021; 13(12): 1754-1769
Published online Dec 27, 2021. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v13.i12.1754
Current and future role of three-dimensional modelling technology in rectal cancer surgery: A systematic review
Anna Przedlacka, Gianluca Pellino, Jordan Fletcher, Fernando Bello, Paris P Tekkis, Christos Kontovounisios
Anna Przedlacka, Paris P Tekkis, Christos Kontovounisios, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, London SW10 9NH, United Kingdom
Gianluca Pellino, Department of Advanced Medical and Surgical Sciences, Università degli Studi della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Naples 80138, Campania, Italy
Gianluca Pellino, Colorectal Surgery, Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona 08029, Spain
Gianluca Pellino, Paris P Tekkis, Christos Kontovounisios, Colorectal Surgery, Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London SW3 6JJ, United Kingdom
Jordan Fletcher, Department of Surgery and Cancer, St Mark’s Hospital Academic Institute, Imperial College London, London HA1 3UJ, United Kingdom
Fernando Bello, Centre for Engagement and Simulation Science, Imperial College London, London SW10 9NH, United Kingdom
Paris P Tekkis, Christos Kontovounisios, Colorectal Surgery, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London SW10 9NH, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Przedlacka A designed the research; Przedlacka A and Fletcher J performed the data search and screening; Przedlacka A, Pellino G and Kontovounisios C analysed the data; Przedlacka A drafted the manuscript; Pellino G, Kontovounisios C, Bello F and Tekkis PP revised the manuscript; All authors approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors declare that they have no competing interests.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Gianluca Pellino, MD, PhD, FRCS (Gen Surg), FEBS (Coloproctology), FASCRS, FACS, Department of Advanced Medical and Surgical Sciences, Università degli Studi della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Piazza Miraglia 2, Naples 80138, Campania. gianluca.pellino@unicampania.it
Received: April 28, 2021
Peer-review started: April 28, 2021
First decision: June 17, 2021
Revised: June 9, 2021
Accepted: November 15, 2021
Article in press: November 15, 2021
Published online: December 27, 2021
Processing time: 239 Days and 16.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Three-dimensional (3D) modelling technology has revolutionized preoperative planning, intraoperative navigation, and surgical training in several surgical specialties. Rectal cancer surgery poses significant challenges due to the complex anatomy of the pelvis. While there is marked interest in the application of 3D modelling in this field, it appears to be still in its relative infancy. Future research and technological developments will enable clinical application of the virtual and physical 3D models to enhance surgical vision before and during rectal cancer surgery.