Surgical Approach for Retro-rectal Tumors: a Retrospective Bicentric Cohort (SART Cohort)

Retro-rectal tumors are a group of heterogeneous and rare lesions. The actual incidence has been estimated to be approximately one case per 40,000 admissions. It is most often a benign tumor that affects young women and the origin is congenital in 60% of cases. The most common benign lesion is a tailgut cyst. Chordoma is the most common malignant lesion. They are mostly asymptomatic or pauci-symptomatic. This is why their diagnosis is regularly accidentaly after a morphological examination such as an abdominal ultrasound or a CT scan. MRI is the gold standard for determining the structure of the lesion, its origin, its topography, its extension in relation to adjacent organs, parameters that are essential to define the type of surgery and its approach.

When a retro-rectal tumor is diagnosed, the standard treatment is surgical resection. A biopsy is not helpful if there is no suspicion of a degenerate lesion. Usually, lesions located under the third sacral vertebra (S3) are approached by dorsal transsacrococcygeal, perineal or combined approach (abdominal and perineal approach) while those located above S3 the approach is abdominal (laparotomy or laparoscopy). As these lesions are, in the majority of cases, benign, the functional impact of surgery is essential. Based on our experience in minimally invasive surgery and in particular in retro-rectal tumors, laparoscopy has become our first-line approach regardless of the location of the lesion compared to S3. Our hypothesis is that the minimally invasive approach is reliable, safe and allows satisfactory histological results to be obtained while limiting postoperative pain and functional sequelae.