Laparoscopic radical left hemicolectomy: Use of a bursa omentalis approach to ease splenic flexure mobilization.

e15071 Background: Laparoscopic splenic flexure mobilization was technically difficult for left colon cancer. This study was aimed to compare the safety and feasibility of laparoscopic radical left hemicolectomy using a bursa omentalis approach (BOA) versus medial-to-lateral approach (MtLA). Methods: BOA was entering the bursa omentalis prior to separating left Toldt’s fascia. We retrospectively analyzed data of 32 cases undergoing laparoscopic radical left hemicolectomy using BOA, matching with using MtLA from January 2013 and October 2016. The matching factors consisted of gender, age, ASA score, BMI, and TNM stage. Data of intraoperative and postoperative characteristics were reviewed. Splenic flexure mobilization time was defined as laparoscopic operation time minus left Toldt’s fascia separating time. Results: There was no significant difference in average time of ambulation, time to first flatus, hospital stay between two groups. The operative time was also similar between two groups (134.2±27.6 min vs 139.4±23.5 min. P = 0.42), but there are significantly shorter splenic flexure mobilization time in BOA group (25.9±12.3 min vs 35.5±22.5 min. P = 0.03). No entry to posterior pancreatic space was recorded in BOA group and 9.4% (3/32) were wrongly entering to posterior pancreatic space when separating left Toldt’s fascia in MtLA group. However, there was no significant difference in intra- or postoperative complication between groups. Conclusions: Our initial results suggest BOA for laparoscopic radical left hemicoletomy may be safe and feasible approach especially for unexperienced surgeons. The main advantages of present approach contain easy to identify pancreas and avoiding wrongly entering posterior pancreatic space when expanding the left Told’s fascia.