Operative, peri-operative and long-term oncological benefits of performing open and laparoscopic gastrectomy for management of gastric cancer patients: A comparative study

Abstract

Background: Laparoscopic assisted gastric resection (Laparoscopic gastrectomy LG) has become increasingly done, as there is marked improvement in equipment and experiences of surgeons regarding such minimally invasive procedures to the degree that many centers now performed LG as a routine resection method of the stomach in locally advanced gastric cancer. The aim: is to compare between open gastrectomy and LG as management procedures for cancer stomach regarding operative, perioperative and detailed longterm, patients follow-up oncologic outcomes and survival benefits. Methods: We performed this prospective study on 30 patients with confirmed gastric cancer. We divided patients into 2 equal groups, performed open gastrectomy for the first group and LG for the second group followed our patients for 5 years. We compared between groups regarding; operative, perioperative, postoperative parameters, recurrence and survival rates. Results: Our results showed that the LG group has longer operating time, less amount of blood loss (p<0.001), time of starting liquid diet (P=0.049), and shorter period of postoperative hospital stay (P=0.043). Wound and abdominal wall complications were significantly lower in the LG group (p=0.008). The 5-year overall survival (OS), disease-free survival rates and recurrence of cancer are similar in both groups (P > 0.05). Conclusion: We found that LG is an effective and safe surgical modality that is better than open approach in management of gastric cancer regarding; early recovery and less peri-operative morbidity, wound infection and respiratory complications.