Abstract
In 1982 Heald et al. described total mesorectal excision (TME) in a paper from Basingstoke (UK) entitled “The mesorectum in rectal cancer surgery—the clue to pelvic recurrence?”. The four-year follow-up data reported a 3.7% local recurrence rate. This, and subsequent data, gave rises to a large-scale initiative to train all Swedish rectal cancer surgeons in the TME technique. The result was a fall in 5-year local recurrence from 14 to 6% with an associated improvement in survival. This chapter outlines the practical details provided during that training and it is intended to offer the necessary details to perform optimal TME surgery.
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Battersby, N.J., Moran, B. (2021). Rectal Cancer: Anterior Resection and Low Anterior Resection with Total or Partial Mesorectal Excision. In: Hohenberger, W., Parker, M. (eds) Lower Gastrointestinal Tract Surgery. Springer Surgery Atlas Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60827-9_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60827-9_12
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