Inclusion and exclusion criteria
comorbid systemic diseases, tumor, bleeding, systemic malignancies, coagulation dysfunction, infection, enema, pulmonary disease, Cancer
TUMOR, BLEEDING, PULMONARY DISEASE, LIVER DISEASE, RECTAL TUMOR, RENAL DISEASE, INFECTION, ADENOCARCINOMA, CARDIAC DISEASE, PATHOLOGY, METASTASES, RECTAL CANCER, CANCER
The inclusion criteria were as follows: preoperative pathology showing adenocarcinoma, preoperative diagnosis of stage T1-T3(according to the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) 7th edition TNM tumor staging criteria) rectal cancer by CT or MRI with a range of 5-15 cm from the anal verge, single rectal tumor lesion with no distant metastases, preoperative American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) rating of I-III, no emergency surgery, and no preoperative radiotherapy or other antineoplastic treatment.Exclusion criteria were as follows: conversion to open surgery during laparoscopic surgery; intraoperative finding of mesenteric metastases or local invasion; intraoperative IMA root ligation for bleeding; and patients with comorbid systemic diseases that are inoperable, such as severe coagulation dysfunction, severe liver disease, severe renal disease, severe cardiac disease, severe pulmonary disease or other systemic malignancies. All patients received oral antibiotics 3 days prior to surgery to prevent infection and a cleansing enema 1 day prior to surgery. Those with one or more of the above conditions were excluded. A flow diagram for the study participant screening and grouping is shown in Fig. 
Flow chart of the study profile