Pelvic Compartments and Imaging Considerations Beyond TME Surgery for Rectal Cancer Patients

 

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Abstract

The rectum resides next to multiple important organs, muscles, nodes, nerves, and vessels. While operating in the mesorectal plane is sacrosanct for a successful rectal cancer surgery to obtain a negative circumferential resection margin and minimize local recurrence, advanced rectal tumors need to be operated beyond the standard surgical template. We discuss the various surgical options in such cases, and describe the imaging findings to consider helping the surgeon decide on the appropriate surgery.

Publication History

Article published online:
05 June 2025

© 2025. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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