“…In particular, a large Canadian study 3 , analysing circular stapler anastomotic rings specimens from nearly 490 CRC resections, confirmed that their routine pathologic evaluation is not useful, as no patients had cancer in the ring specimen, 5.1 per cent had benign pathological findings and patients’ management was never affected by this result. Also, in another registry study including nearly 6200 patients from Sweden 4 , authors documented that the routine use of rectal washout during anterior resection did not impact the 3-year oncological outcomes, even if a reduction in local recurrence risk after the 5-year follow-up was observed.…”