BPG is committed to discovery and dissemination of knowledge
Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2026. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Surg. Jan 27, 2026; 18(1): 113046
Published online Jan 27, 2026. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v18.i1.113046
Short-term outcomes of laparoscopic-assisted transanal vs laparoscopic total mesorectal excision for mid-to-low rectal cancer
Qi Huang, Yue Li, Shi-Dong Feng, Yu-Chen Fang, Yuan-Hang Zhou, Da-Wei Li, Zhi-Wei Liao
Qi Huang, Yue Li, Shi-Dong Feng, Yu-Chen Fang, Zhi-Wei Liao, Department of General Surgery, RenHe Hospital, Baoshan District, Shanghai 200431, China
Yuan-Hang Zhou, Department of General Surgery, Shanghai Second Rehabilitation Hospital, Shanghai 201900, China
Da-Wei Li, Department of General Surgery, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai 200032, China
Co-first authors: Qi Huang and Yue Li.
Co-corresponding authors: Shi-Dong Feng and Zhi-Wei Liao.
Author contributions: Huang Q and Li Y equally contributed to manuscript as the co-first authors of the paper; Huang Q, Li Y, and Feng DS equally contributed to this study; Huang Q, Zhou YH, and Li DW performed and rechecked the analysis results; Huang Q, Li Y, and Liao ZW analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; Li Y, Feng DS, and Fang YC conducted the research; Li DW and Liao ZW have played important and indispensable roles in the manuscript preparation as the co-corresponding authors; all authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by Shanghai Baoshan District Science and Technology Commission Special Fund for Scientific and Technological Innovation Projects, No. 19-E-37.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of RenHe Hospital, Baoshan District, Shanghai, China (No. KJ2019-08).
Informed consent statement: The requirement for individual informed consent was waived by the Ethics Committee of RenHe Hospital, Baoshan District, Shanghai, China, because this study was a retrospective analysis of anonymized clinical data.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest related to this study.
Data sharing statement: De-identified data underlying the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Zhi-Wei Liao, MD, Department of General Surgery, RenHe Hospital, Baoshan District, No. 1999 Changjiang West Road, Shanghai 200431, China. rhyylzw@163.com
Received: September 3, 2025
Revised: October 9, 2025
Accepted: November 19, 2025
Published online: January 27, 2026
Processing time: 140 Days and 1.5 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: This retrospective study compared laparoscopic-assisted transanal total mesorectal excision (TaTME) with traditional laparoscopic total mesorectal excision in 138 patients with mid-to-low rectal cancer. TaTME demonstrated significant advantages including reduced intraoperative blood loss, superior oncological outcomes with lower circumferential resection margin positivity rates and higher lymph node harvest, accelerated postoperative recovery, attenuated inflammatory response, and better anal function preservation. Multivariate analysis identified TaTME as an independent protective factor for good anal function. These findings suggest TaTME is a safer and more effective surgical approach for mid-to-low rectal cancer, warranting broader clinical adoption.