OBJECTIVETo analyze clinical and pathological of lymph node skip metastasis of rectal cancer and discuss the meaning of the high vascular ligation.

METHODSA retrospective analysis of 207 cases for radical resection of rectal cancer was made, meanwhile the skip metastasis of the roots of the inferior mesenteric artery lymph nodes was studied. Combined with clinical data, the relevance of clinical and pathological factors with the skip metastasis was analyzed.

RESULTSThe 207 cases of rectal cancer patients surgical resection specimen detected 2305 pieces of lymph node, the transfer of 168 patients with. The statistical analysis found that skip metastasis related with tumor differentiation (χ(2) = 113.65, P = 0.037) and depth of tumor invasion (χ(2) = 108.22, P = 0.042), but gender, age, location, size, preoperative carcinoembryonic antigen level, gross type and tissue types factors were not significantly correlation.

CONCLUSIONSPreoperative differentiation of cancer and tumor invasion depth assessment can help prompt the existence of lymph node skip metastasis. The assessment of the risk of skip metastasis for patients should be performed the high vascular ligation and lymph node dissection.