Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES) in Rectal Tumors

Advances in the management of rectal cancer have led to significantly improved outcomes in terms of better overall survival, disease-free survival, and local recurrence rates. However, all this is possible with some sort of compromise on the patient’s quality of life. In order to offer better quality of life to such patients, the concept of natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) has evolved. However, this modality of treatment is suitable for a selected group of patients. There are various types of NOTES procedures that can be used for the treatment of early rectal cancers and other benign rectal lesions. In this chapter, we discuss the principles and technical details of these procedures.