Laparoscopic Versus Conventional Open Surgery in Intersphincteric Resection for Low Rectal Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract Aim: This meta-analysis aims at comparing laparoscopic intersphincteric resection (LISR) with conventional open ISR (OISR) for low rectal cancer (LRC) in terms of intraoperative, postoperative, pathological, and survival outcomes. Materials and Methods: A systematic literature search with no limits was performed in PubMed and Ovid. The last search was performed on May 27, 2017. The outcomes of interests included intraoperative outcomes: operative time and blood loss; postoperative outcomes: hospital day, postoperative hospital day, time to first flatus, time to normal diet, ileus, intra-abdominal abscess, anastomotic leakage, anastomotic stricture, wound infection, pneumonia, urinary complication, morbidity, and mortality; pathological outcomes: lymph node harvested, R0 resection rate, distance of proximal resection margin, distal resection margin and circumferential resection margin (CRM), and positive CRM; survival outcomes: 3-year overall survival (OS), 3-year disease-free survival (DFS), 5-ye...