title: More adequate lymph node dissection after laparoscopic colorectal surgery.
abstract: The aim of this study was to determine whether there is a difference in the amount of lymph nodes harvested during open and laparoscopic surgery and whether this might influence the subsequent offering of adjuvant chemotherapy. All patients who underwent colorectal surgery for colorectal malignancies from July 2006 to April 2008 were included in our prospective database and in the study. In the laparoscopic group, 11/55 (20%) patients with stage II tumors had <10 lymph nodes in the pathology specimen when compared with 44/110 (40%) in the open group (P=0.01). The average number of lymph nodes was 12.1 for laparoscopic as compared with 10.2 lymph nodes for open resection (P=0.009). We demonstrate a significant increase in the number of resected lymph nodes with laparoscopic surgery. Significantly more patients in the open surgery group had <10 negative lymph nodes and were subsequently offered chemotherapy for their high-risk stage II colorectal malignancies.
authors.affiliation: *Department of General Surgery, Meander Medisch Centrum, Amersfoort †Department of Surgery, Flevoziekenhuis, Almere ‡Department of Surgery, Diakonessenhuis, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Paulus M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Verheijen
authors.forename: Anthony W H
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: vd Ven
authors.forename: Paul H P
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Davids
authors.forename: Apollo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pronk
mesh_terms: D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D061887:Conversion to Open Surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy; D008197:Lymph Node Excision / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011183:Postoperative Complications