The hypothesis that the length of bowel and amount of mesentery resected with laparoscopically assisted colectomy are comparable to traditional open techniques was tested by means of a chart review of prospectively collected data of 22 laparoscopically assisted colectomies, 35 open colectomies performed by the same surgeon, and 39 other open colectomies performed at the same institution by other community surgeons. The average length of bowel resected in the laparoscopically assisted group was 21.7 cm, for the traditionally resected group, 31.4 cm, and for the other group, 26.7 cm. No statistically significant differences existed between the three evaluable groups. Although there was a trend toward greater length of bowel resected with the open technique, there was no statistically significant difference in this study. Follow-up at a mean of 24 months after resections shows no abdominal wall recurrences or any unusual patterns of recurrence. It is concluded that laparoscopically assisted colectomy can be performed in select groups to obtain adequate surgical resection for colorectal carcinoma. Further studies to generate larger numbers of patients with longer follow-up to determine the adequacy of resection as well as the comparability of cure rate will be necessary to confirm the findings of this preliminary study.