ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the surgical management of colorectal cancer, the lessons that have been learned during the advancement of treatment for rectal cancer, the surgical principles, and how they may be applied to colonic cancer. Tumor spread beyond the mesorectal envelope or incomplete surgical excision leads to the development of local recurrence in the patient. Conventional surgical techniques, using blunt dissection of the rectum and mesorectum, pose a high risk of damage to the hypogastric nerves and breaching of the mesorectum. In rectal cancer, the importance of preoperative staging has led to a selective policy for preoperative therapy and staged surgical resection. Quality of surgical resection is paramount and an accepted specimen grading may be used to compare surgeons performance. The artery of the rectum, the inferior mesenteric artery, is the integral vessel of the hindgut, the distal portion of the embryological gastrointestinal tract.
