[Surgical treatment of rectal cancer: comparison of anterior resection and abdominoperineal excision].

From 1987 to 1992, 91 rectal neoplasms were operated in the Istituto di Patologia Speciale Chirurgica of the University of Bologna: 50 anterior resections and 41 abdomino-perineal amputations. The local recurrence rate shows no significant difference between the two groups. The mortality rate is 7.6% in anterior resections and 14.2% in abdomino-perineal amputations. Our results and literature review show that local recurrence and mortality rates depend more from the tumor stage than from the surgical procedure.