Abstract:Objective To analyze the postoperative defecation function in 230 cases of rectal cancer, and study the risk factors of the low anterior resection syndrome (LARS). Methods Totally 230 cases of low rectal cancer who underwent the low anterior resection in Shanxi Provincial People’s Hospital during from January 2013 to December 2017 were selected ,and all of them followed the TME principle. During this period, telephone follow-up, face-to-face follow-up and other methods were used for evaluating the defecation function of the subjects. Based on the severity of the patient of LARS, we tried to find out the difference of several clinical factors between the group of above lowgrade LARS and the group of asymptomatic LARS. Results Out of 230 patients, patients with above low-grade LARS for 126 cases (54.8%), and 104 patients with asymptomatic LARS (45.2%). The difference in sexes, N stage, tumor location, preventive colostomy and the presence of anastomotic leakage was statistically significant (P < 0.05).Multivariate analysis show that female [Ol ^ R=2.301, 95% CI (1.239, 4.275)], low tumor location [Ol ^ R=0.410, 95% CI (0.288, 0.584)] and anastomotic leakage [Ol ^ R=29.289, 95% CI (1.045, 82.533)] were risk factors of LARS (P < 0.05). Conclusions The incidence of the LARS in postoperative patients with rectal cancer is high. The severity of the LARS is affected by N stage and preventive colostomy. The female, low tumor and anastomotic leakage are independent risk factors.