Background: Local recurrence (LR) of cancer after rectal surgery is followed by significant morbidity and mortality. Since the introduction of total mesorectal excision (TME) the rates of LR have decreased in many centres. The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the effect of TME on the recurrence rates of rectal cancer and the impact of the surgeons.
Methods: All patients resected for invasive rectal cancer from 1990 until 2000 were initially included in the study. From February 1994, TME was adopted as the standard treatment (TME group). Before this period, rectal surgery was performed by the non-TME technique (non-TME group). To obtain homogeneity, patients who underwent preoperative irradiation, emergency operations, pre- or intraoperative bowel perforation, residual tumour stage (R1,2) including Dukes' D stage and postoperative mortality within 31 days, were excluded. 139 patients in the non-TME group and 181 patients in the TME group were found eligible for analyses.
Results: The estimated LR rate at 1, 3 and 5 years was 7, 15 and 17% (non-TME) versus 4, 9 and 9% (TME) (p = 0.046, log-rank test). The anastomotic leakage rate was 6% (non-TME) versus 4% (TME) (not significant). Perioperative blood loss >500 ml, reoperations during the hospital stay and lymph node (N) stage were the independent risk factors for LR in the multivariate analysis. The case volume did not significantly influence LR rates. However, the variability of individual surgical results was reduced after the introduction of TME.
Conclusions: TME yields significantly lower LR rates compared with traditional surgery. Since the introduction of TME, experience with rectal surgery has been gathered by a limited number of surgeons. The results of individual surgeons have consistently improved and the variability of individual surgical results is now at a lower level.