Laparoscopic surgery for rectal cancer has become a routine operation. Different from opening surgery, the narrow space of the pelvic cavity leads to the difficulty to form a satisfactory angle in placing the stapler, which leads to the need of extra anastomotic nails, increasing medical cost and incidence of anastomotic leakage. Because of lack of direct tactile sensation, closure of rectum reluctantly in the narrow pelvic cavity may lead to insufficient distal margin, resulting in postoperative anastomotic recurrence. Therefore, it is of great clinical significance to adopt different distal closure strategies according to different tumor characteristics in laparoscopic surgery for rectal cancer.