Male/female Median age (years) Colon Rectum Presence of medical diseases ASA class 3–5 Operating time (min) Blood loss (ml) Complications Operative mortality (30 days) Stage I Stage II Stage III Stage IV Median distal margin (cm) Size of tumors (cm) Differentiation Well Moderate Poor Lymphovascular permeation Median no. of lymph nodes examined Perineural invasion Median hospital stay Reoperation Open n 01197 702:495 71 (61–77)a 631 (52.7%) 566 (47.3%) 687 (57.4%) 261(21.8%) 130 (105–169)a 200 (100–450)a 335 (28.0%) 23 (1.9%) 148 (12.4%) 476 (39.8%) 400 (33.4%) 173 (14.5%) 4.0 (2.5–6.0)a 4.0 (3.0–6.0)a 65 1,009 123 382 11 (7–16) 168 8 (6–11)a 41 (3.4%) Laparoscopic n0814 455:359 70 (61–78)a 468 (57.5%) 346 (42.5%) 473 (58.1%) 153 (18.8%) 180 (141–218)a 100 (50–200)a 141 (17.3%) 4 (0.5%) 152 (18.6%) 285 (35.0%) 246 (30.2%) 131 (16.1%) 4.0 (2.5–6.0)a 4.0 (3.0–5.0)a 48 725 41 239 13 (8–18)a 100 5 (4–8)a 26 (3.2%) Int J Colorectal Dis (2012) 27:1077–1085 Table 1 Comparison of patient with open and laparoscopic resection for colorectal cancer Cardiac complications Pulmonary complications Deep vein thrombosis/pulmonary embolism Ileus Wound infection Anastomotic leak Urological complications Open n01197 59 (4.9%) 64 (5.3%) 9 (0.8%) 82 (6.9%) 52 (4.3%) 29 (2.4%) 52 (4.3%) Laparoscopic n0814 21 (2.6%) 22 (2.7%) 5 (0.6%) 32 (3.9%) 25 (3.1%) 15 (1.8%) 36 (4.4%) ASA American Society of Anesthesiology class aFigures in parenthesis are interquartile range Table 2 Comparison of postoperative complications between open and laparoscopic resection and the conversion rate was 7.1%. The 30-day mortality was 0.5% and the complication rate was 17.3% in those patients who had laparoscopic resection. Conversion was associated with significantly more blood loss, higher complication rate, and a longer hospital stay when compared with successful laparoscopic procedures. Comparison between laparoscopic and open operation is shown in Table 1. Laparoscopic resection was associated with significantly less blood loss, a lower incidence of postoperative complications and mortality as well a shorter hospital stay. The cardiac, pulmonary complications as well as postoperative ileus were also significantly fewer in patients who underwent laparoscopic resection (Table 2). Regarding the resected specimens, there is no difference in the distal margin. Patients with open operations tended to have bigger tumors although the median size of tumors was 4 cm in both groups. There were significantly more lymph nodes examined in the laparoscopic group (Table 1). The median follow-up period of the patients was 40.3 months. In those patients with stage IV disease, there was no difference in survival between those with laparoscopic or open resection. 1079 p values 0.232 0.472 0.036 0.748 0.081 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 0.005 0.001 0.374 0.005 <0.001 0.238 p<0.001 0.285 <0.001 0.802 p values 0.008 0.005 0.791 0.006 0.156 0.439 1.000