Hand Assisted Versus "Pure" Laparoscopic Assisted Proctectomy for Rectal Cancer

We hypothesize that hand-assisted laparoscopy will overcome technical difficulties related to pure laparoscopic rectal surgery and allow surgeons to expand application of laparoscopic techniques to treating patients with rectal cancer. In this study, we plan to randomly assign patients diagnosed with rectal cancer to undergo either "standard" laparoscopic surgery or hand-assisted laparoscopic surgery. We will then compare both peri-operative and long-term outcomes of patients.