Ninety-three patients underwent a potentially curative abdominoperineal resection (APR) with a wide perineal dissection to the ischial tuberosities and excision of the entire mesorectum. There were 56 males and 37 females. The median follow-up was 67 months (range 7–240 months). The lymph node clearing technique was used and the median number of lymph nodes cleared was 35 (range 6–89). Eighteen of 93 patients (19%) developed a local recurrence, 12 of whom (13%) developed local recurrence only as the first site of recurrence. In 10 of 18 patients (56%) the distal rectum was the site of the primary rectal cancer. Of the 18 patients, 1 patient had stage I disease, 5 stage II, and 12 stage III. Five of the 18 patients (28%) who developed a local recurrence received adjuvant therapy. The median survival from the time of diagnosis of a local recurrence was 12 months. Histological grade (p =. 001), patient age (p =. 006), and presence of positive lymph nodes (p =. 005) had a statistically significant adverse effect on survival. We believe the surgical technique of abdominoperineal resection with wide perineal resection to the ischial tuberosities and total excision of the mesorectum allowed us to achieve a low local recurrence rate (13%) in a high-risk group of patients. Clearly, the best form of prevention for local recurrence from rectal adenocarcinoma is radical surgical therapy of the primary tumor.