Colorectal Cancer: Open Access

Laparoscopic Sphincter Saving Surgery for Node Positive Anorectal Melanoma

Anorectal melanomas are very rare malignancies accounting for less than 1% of all the anorectal malignant tumors. There has been paradigm shift in the surgical management of these rare tumors over last decade from the more extensive abdominoperineal resection (APER) to the wide local excision (WLE). Non inferiority in survival, lower perioperative morbidity and better quality of life have been the factors contributing to faster adoption of WLE over APER. However local recurrence rate is significantly higher with WLE alone. The role of RT has not been well defined in anorectal melanoma. Hence there is a need for an alternative surgical procedure which may have lower recurrence rate while not compromising the quality of life of the patients. We are reporting laparoscopic intersphincteric resection for a case of anal melanoma which has all the advantages of the WLE and in addition, offers the advantage of wider margin as well as nodal clearance.

Author(s):

Vishwas D Pai, Manish Bhandare, Munita Bal and Avinash P Saklani

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