A low anterior resection for rectal cancer in most cases results in creating a colorectal anastomosis with a surgical circular stapler device. Using a disposable circular stapler with two rows of staples is standard of care nowadays. Colorectal anastomosis dehiscence and subsequent anastomotic leak in postoperative period happens in 5-25% of cases and is a major and life-threatening complication. Thus different improvements to the procedure of creating a colorectal anastomosis are being proposed. One of them is utilizing a three-row instead of a two-row surgical circular stapler.~A three-row surgical stapler has recently been registered and approved for clinical use in Russia. The primary purpose of this study is to find out the rate of colorectal anastomosis leakage when using a three-row circular stapler and to demonstrate that it is at least not bigger than the rate of colorectal anastomosis leakage when using a two-row circular stapler.
This trial aims to assess safety and efficacy of three-row circular staplers compared to two-row surgical stapllers in short-term and long-term perspective in patients with rectal cancer undergoing low anterior resection with stapled colorectal anastomosis. All the patients will undergo a low anterior resection. In a half of patients a colorectal anastomosis will be created with a three-row surgical circular stapler. In another half of patients a colorectal anastomosis will be created with a two-row surgical circular stapler.