Intracorporeal anastomosis could be associated with a higher lymph node yield in right colon cancer surgery: Results of the ICA-LATAM study, a retrospective, multicentre, comparative analysis in Latin America.

AIM: The aim of this work was to compare lymph node (LN) yield in patients operated on for right colon cancer (RCC) using a laparoscopic approach between those receiving an intracorporeal (ICA) or extracorporeal anastomosis (ECA).

METHOD: This is a retrospective multicentre study involving patients operated on for RCC in nine tertiary referral centres in Latin America during a 2-year period. The main comparative outcome between groups was the number of LNs harvested between groups.

RESULTS: The study included 416 patients, 261 (62.7%) in the ECA group and 155 (37.3%) in the ICA group. Patients in the ECA group were elderly (66 vs. 61 years, p < 0.001). Patients receiving an ICA achieved a significantly higher LN yield than those receiving an ECA (24 vs. 18, p < 0.001). This group also had a lower percentage of patients achieving a substandard LN yield (<12 LNs) (10% vs. 24.8%, p = 0.001) and more patients achieving a high number of harvested LNs (>32 LNs) (15.5% vs. 8.3%, p = 0.039). In the multivariate analysis, ICA was independently related to the primary outcome (LN yield) (OR 3.28, p = 0.027, 95% CI 1.14-9.38).

CONCLUSION: In this retrospective study, patients operated on for RCC who received an ICA achieved a higher LN yield. Further studies are needed to reconfirm these findings, and also to find an explanation for these results.