Multidimensional analysis considering various surgical outcomes is necessary to evaluate the learning curve for laparoscopic rectal cancer surgery. The effective surgical learning curve was approximately 60-80 procedures in this series.

Intravascular papillary endothelial hyperplasia (Masson's hemangioma) is a disease characterized by exuberant endothelial proliferation within the lumen of medium-sized veins. In 1923, Masson regarded this disease as a neoplasm inducing endothelial proliferation, however, now it is considered to be a reactive vascular proliferation following traumatic vascular stasis. The lesion has a propensity to occur in the head, neck, fingers, and trunk. Occurrence within the abdominal cavity is known to be very rare, and especially in the liver, there has been no reported case up to date. The authors have experienced intravascular papillary endothelial hyperplasia of the liver in a 69-yr-old woman, and report the case with a review of the literature.

Laparoscopic surgery did not adversely affect the long-term oncological outcome for patients with rectal cancer.

No abstract

The results of anal fistula treatments have improved with the development of the anal fistula operative technique. However, there are still complications, such as recurrence and anal incontinence. To this end, the authors classified anal fistulas by using Sumikoshi's classification and performed an anal-sphincterpreserving procedure. Methods: We experienced 98 anal fistula cases involving 86 patients who underwent anal fistula operations at The Catholic University of Korea, St. Vincent's Hospital from January 2001 to December 2006. This study was done retrospectively by chart review and telephone questioning. The follow-up period was from 2 to 72 months (mean 29.5, SD: 19.1). Results:The study showed 0 cases of Type I (0.0%), 49 cases of Type II (50.0%), 46 cases of Type III (46.9%), and 3 cases of Type IV (3.1%) fistulas. Among the 98 fistula-in-ano operations were 27 (27.6%) of fistulotomies and 71 (72.4%) sphincter-preserving procedures (2 cases of coring-out+muscle filling+rectal mucosal advancement flap, 31 cases of coring-out+ muscle closure+rectal mucosal advancement flap, 28 cases of coring-out+cutting seton, and 10 cases of loose seton). After the sphincter-preserving operation, there were 4 cases (4/71, 5.6%) of recurrence. There were no major disorders of the anal sphincter. However, minor disorders of the anal sphincter (6/71, 8.5%, soiling) were found. Conclusions: The anal-sphincter-