Background
Laparoscopic complete mesocolon excision (LCME) for right colonic cancer improves oncological outcomes. This systematic review and meta‐analysis aimed to compare intraoperative, postoperative, and oncological outcomes after LCME and open total mesocolon excision (OCME) for right‐sided colonic cancers.
Methods
Literature searches of electronic databases and manual searches up to January 31, 2019, were performed. Random‐effects meta‐analysis model was used. Review Manager Version 5.3 was used for pooled estimates.
Results
After screening 1334 articles, 10 articles with a total of 2778 patients were eligible for inclusion. Compared to OCME, LCME improves results in terms of overall morbidity (OR = 1.48, 95% CI 1.21 to 1.80, p = 0.0001), blood loss (MD = 56.56, 95% CI 19.05 to 94.06, p = 0.003), hospital stay (MD = 2.18 day, 95% CI 0.54 to 3.83, p = 0.009), and local (OR = 2.12, 95% CI 1.09 to 4.12, p = 0.03) and distant recurrence (OR = 1.63, 95% CI 1.23–2.16, p = 0.0008). There was no significant difference regarding mortality, anastomosis leakage, number of harvested lymph nodes, and 3‐year disease‐free survival. Open approach was significantly better than laparoscopy in terms of operative time (MD = − 34.76 min, 95% CI − 46.01 to − 23.50, p < 0.00001) and chyle leakage (OR = 0.41, 95% CI 0.18 to 0.96, p = 0.04).
Conclusions
This meta‐analysis suggests that LCME in right colon cancer surgery is superior to OCME in terms of overall morbidity, blood loss, hospital stay, and local and distant recurrence with a moderate grade of recommendation due to the retrospective nature of the included studies.
