Influence of the ligation sequence of the inferior mesenteric artery and vein on circulating tumor cells in laparoscopic rectal cancer surgery: a prospective pilot study

Table 2 The comparison of surgery-related outcomes and postoperative complications between the A-first and V-first groups

Clinicopathologic characteristics	A-first	V-first	P†
	n = 15	n = 14
Surgical duration (min)*	200.7 (36.9)	169.6 (50.3)	0.068‡
Blood loss (ml)*	58.7 (32.0)	49.3 (18.2)	0.346‡
Lymph nodes harvested*	20.1 (4.8)	18.2 (5.9)	0.346‡
Apical Lymph nodes harvested*	2.1 (1.9)	2.4 (2.3)	0.654‡
Postoperative complication			0.129
No	15 (100.0)	12 (85.7)
Yes	0	2 (14.3)^#

Values in parentheses are percentages unless indicated otherwise; *values are median (interquartile range). † χ2 or Fisher’s exact test, except ‡Student’s t test. V-first: vein-first; A-first: artery-first
^# Two patients experienced postoperative complications; one had an infection at the perineal incision after undergoing an abdominoperineal resection, and the other had bleeding at the anastomotic site. Both were classified as Grade II according to the Clavien-Dindo classification

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