Conventional transanal excision

Conventional transanal excision allows a direct endoluminal approach through a natural orifice, avoiding the life altering presence of a stoma and associated morbidity and mortality of transabdominal surgery. Benign polyps and early-stage rectal cancer within the low to mid rectum can be definitively treated with transanal excision, with few complications, typically in an outpatient fashion. Other minimally invasive approaches outlined in this issue may demonstrate less specimen fragmentation, higher rate of negative margins, and decreased recurrence, but are often impractical for excising lesions in the low rectum.