OBJECTIVETo conduct a meta-analysis of postoperative complications between laparoscopic resection (Group LR) and traditional open resection (Group OR) of mid-low rectal carcinoma.

METHODSMeta analysis was performed by two reviewers, who independently selected and extracted data retrieved from literatures and papers published in China Knowledge Resource Integrated Database (CNKI), Wangfang Data, Foreign Medical Journal Service (FMJS), PubMed, EMBASE and The Cochrane before August 2012 on comparison between two groups. The statistical analysis for research of complex standard was conducted through Revman 5.0.

RESULTSThirteen clinical case-control studies with a total of 2733 cases were enrolled for analysis, including 1368 cases in Group LR and 1365 in Group OR. The result showed that, compared with Group OR, Group LR had lower overall rate of postoperative complication (OR=0.76, 95%CI:0.62-0.92, P<0.01), lower rate of postoperative intestinal obstruction (OR=0.53, 95%CI:0.35-0.80, P<0.01), lower rate of incision complications (OR=0.43, 95%CI:0.28-0.67, P<0.01), similar incidence of anastomotic bleeding and fistula, and similar incidence of bleeding in abdominal cavity and pelvic cavity (all P>0.05).

CONCLUSIONSThe overall rate of postoperative complications of laparoscopic resection for mid-low rectal carcinoma is obviously lower than that of open resection. Laparoscope can be applied safely in the resection of mid-low rectal carcinoma.