Retractors for laparoscopic colorectal surgery according to LEROY

Within the last years colorectal surgery has rapidly grown and advanced. More and more clinics and hospitals conduct procedures on colon and rectum laparoscopically. Numbers have significantly grown – whereas only 1% of surgical procedures were conducted laparoscopically ten years ago this number has increased tenfold.

Many hospitals have started to do minimal-invasive surgery of the large intestine. Better comfort for the patient, less necessary revisions due to adhesions and shorter hospital stays account for the attractiveness of minimal-invasive colon resection.

This is not only true for benignant diseases but also for the treatment of carcinomas of colon and rectum, which are treated laparoscopically more and more often. There is not only indication for oncological laparoscopic surgery in left and right sided colon carcinomas. With enough expertise and experience of the surgeon colorectal carcinomas can be treated independent of their localisation.

Nonetheless, laparoscopic interventions upon colon and rectum are not yet standardized and still pose a difficult procedure. Especially for interventions upon the rectum the surgeon is highly challenged. The key to success is perfect exposure of the anatomical planes. Performing colorectal anastomoses is not always easy, especially when these anastomoses are situated high up on the rectal stump. Indeed, unlike open surgery where the surgeon can manually guide the trans-anal introduction of the circular stapler, the laparoscopic surgeon must guide his experienced helper with his voice alone.

To make the laparoscopic surgeon’s task easier we have developed specially adapted retractors to expose the dissection planes. The instruments were created jointly with Prof. J. Leroy from Strasbourg following a trial involving several hundred laparoscopic rectal resections.

The LEROY retractors for colorectal laparoscopic surgery  are perfectly adapted to the exposure of anatomical planes without interfering with the dissection, particularly in male patients.