The development and future of the transanal total mesorectal excision

It is critical to ensure complete mesorectal excision for rectal cancer surgery. Different surgical approaches including laparoscopy and expensive robotic surgical system, are currently unable to achieve the same therapeutic effects as traditional open surgery. Transanal total mesorectal excision (TaTME) is a new technique in rectal cancer surgery in recent years, which can effectively solve the problems of traditional transabdominal approach due to poor operative vision caused by low pelvic anatomy. After nearly 10 years of development, TaTME has shown the potential to improve the quality of rectal cancer surgery. With the continued development of emerging surgical techniques, TaTME relies on extensive, continuous structured training and high-quality clinical researches. Key words: Rectal neoplasms; Rectal cancer; Transanal total mesorectal excision; Total mesorectal excision; Laparoscopy