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. 2023 Sep 14;12(18):5962.
doi: 10.3390/jcm12185962.

Low Anterior Resection Syndrome (LARS) after Surgery for Rectal Cancer: An Inevitable Price to Pay for Survival, or a Preventable Complication?

Edoardo Maria Muttillo  1 , Alice La Franca  1 , Alessandro Coppola  2 , Francesco Saverio Li Causi  1 , Marzia Checchelani  1 , Alice Ceccacci  1 , Giorgio Castagnola  1 , Giovanni Maria Garbarino  3 , Mattia Falchetto Osti  4 , Genoveffa Balducci  1 , Paolo Mercantini  1
Affiliations

Low Anterior Resection Syndrome (LARS) after Surgery for Rectal Cancer: An Inevitable Price to Pay for Survival, or a Preventable Complication?

Edoardo Maria Muttillo et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

Background: Rectal cancer is frequent and often treated with sphincter-saving procedures that may cause LARS, a syndrome characterized by symptoms of bowel disfunction that may severely affect quality of life. LARS is common, but its pathogenesis is mostly unknown. The aim of this study is to assess the incidence of LARS and to identify potential risk factors.

Methods: We performed an observational retrospective single center analysis. The following data were collected and analyzed for each patient: demographics, tumor-related data, and intra- and peri-operative data. Statistical analysis was conducted, including descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression to identify independent risk factors.

Results: Total LARS incidence was 31%. Statistically significant differences were found in tumor distance from anal verge, tumor extension (pT and diameter) and tumor grading (G). Multivariate analysis identified tumor distance from anal verge and tumor extension as an independent predictive factor for both major and total LARS. Adjuvant therapy, although not significant at univariate analysis, was identified as an independent predictive factor. Time to stoma closure within 10 weeks seems to reduce incidence of major LARS.

Conclusions: bold LARS affects a considerable portion of patients. This study identified potential predictive factors that could be useful to identify high risk patients for LARS.

Keywords: LARS; ileostomy; low anterior resection syndrome; rectal cancer; rectal surgery.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart.
Figure 2
Figure 2
LARS questionnaire by Emmertsen et al., Annals of Surgery, 2012 [9].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Time to stoma closure and incidence of LARS.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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