Table 1.

Basic patient characteristics.

	Cohort 1	Cohort 2
Total number of patients	60	27
Age in years, median and (range)	76 (56–90)	71(35–86)
Gender male/female	26/34	16/11
Operation type; number of patients
Open/laparoscopic operation*	34/26	27/0
Duration of operation in minutes; mean and (range)* *
Open operation	131 (80–361)	Not recorded
Laparoscopic operation	202 (79–335)
Disease classification
Benign colon disease	12	2
Colon/rectum adenocarcinoma	48/0	13/12
Dukes’ stages; no. of patients
A	5	6
B	19	8
C	15	7
D	9	4

^*Three patients with malignant disease were converted intraoperatively from laparoscopic to open surgery and are considered as treated with open surgery in the statistical analysis.

^**Duration of the operation was significantly longer for laparoscopic assisted surgery compared to open surgery (P< 0·0001).