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Abstract

Transanal surgery draws its roots from transanal endoscopic microsurgery (TEM), invented by Dr. Gerhard Buess in 1983, and the transanal abdominal transanal proctosigmoidectomy (TATA), as described by Dr. Gerald Marks in 1984. Early experience in TEM focused on excision of benign rectal lesions but was later successfully expanded to the treatment of partial thickness rectal cancer. TATA allowed for the radical excision of distal rectal cancer and addressed the difficulties of operating in the narrow pelvis, obtaining a known distal margin in the radiated rectum and allowing for sphincter preservation with the avoidance of a permanent colostomy. Recent evolution in technology has built upon these techniques and allowed total mesorectal excision to be performed entirely transanally. The challenges of transanal surgery have limited its adoption; however, recent advances in robotic surgery, which include novel platforms such as the Flex® Robotic System, STRAS robot, and da Vinci SP Surgical System, promise to broaden the accessibility of this technique to more surgeons and patients.

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Abbreviations

MIS:

Minimally invasive surgery

NOTES:

Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery

RATS-TME:

Robotic transanal total mesorectal excision; robotic taTME

RTAS:

Robotic transanal surgery

SILS:

Single incision laparoscopic surgery

TAMIS:

Transanal minimally invasive surgery

TATA:

Transanal transabdominal proctosigmoidectomy

taTME:

Transanal total mesorectal excision

TEM:

Transanal endoscopic microsurgery

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Izquierdo, K.M., Siva, T., Salem, J., Anderson, B., Marks, J. (2019). Transanal Robotic Surgery and Future Directions. In: Atallah, S. (eds) Transanal Minimally Invasive Surgery (TAMIS) and Transanal Total Mesorectal Excision (taTME). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11572-2_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11572-2_17

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-11571-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-11572-2

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