OBJECTIVETo summarize the clinical experience of transanal specimen extraction and introduce how to achieve the rectum reconstruction in robotic rectal cancer surgery.

METHODSClinical data of 15 cases undergoing rectal cancer resection with the da Vinci robotic system in Jinglin Hospital between February 2012 and May 2012 were analyzed retrospectively.

RESULTSThere were 9 males and 6 females with a mean age of (61.5±9.2) years old. All the cases underwent robotic surgery successfully without intraoperative conversion. The average operative time was (154.7±10.6) min with minimal blood loss (17.3±6.5) ml. The time to first flatus was (2.3±0.8) days postoperatively. The postoperative hospital stay was (3.3±0.6) days. The mean number of lymph node harvested from the surgical specimen was (15.0±1.2). All the resection margins were negative. All the patients had postoperative follow-up ranging from 4 to 8 weeks. There were no postoperative infection, anastomotic leak, incision hernia, or short-term deaths.

CONCLUSIONda Vinci robotic system greatly reduces the difficulty of the rectal cancer surgery with its unique light source system and flexible equipment operation.