In the past, for patients with low rectal cancer (the tumor was within 5cm away from the anal verge), the anus was removed at the same time as the tumor was removed. If the anus cannot be preserved, the patient needs to carry a permanent stoma to excrete feces from the abdomen. This “fecal bag” hanging on the abdomen seriously affects the patient’s quality of life. Transanal Endoscopic Microsurgery of our hospital can not only remove low rectal tumors, but also perserve the anus and its functions, greatly improving the patient’s quality of life.

Recently, TEM was successfully performed on a patient from Inner Mongolia under general anesthesia by the oncology surgeon Liu Haiying, the vice director of our hospital, with Dr. Li Xinjun and Tang Song as assistants. The surgery time was less than 2 hours and the bleeding was less than 1 ml. The patient was safely returned to the ward after the surgery.

This patient underwent colonoscopy and endoscopic dissection in a Inner Mongolia 3A hospital due to a rectal mass one month ago, and the postoperative pathology showed rectal adenocarcinoma. Consider that the tumor was less than 1mm away from the resection margin, He traveled to oncology hospitals in Beijing for further treatment. He was told that the anus should be removed since the tumor was only 3cm away from the anus, and he rejected this treatment option. Through inquiry in many ways, he came to seek consultation with Vice director Liu Haiying.

After examination and evaluation, Prof. Liu Haiying provided the Transanal Endoscopic Microsurgery (TEM) option, which was agreed by the patient and his family. He immediately decided to be admitted to the surgical department and successfully received the surgery after two days of preoperative procedures.