Long-term comparison of laparoscopy-assisted distal gastrectomy and open distal gastrectomy in advanced gastric cancer.

摘要

Gordon et al. [1] examined 201 patients who underwent distal gastrectomy for treating advanced gastric cancer (AGC). The primary goal of this study was to assess the short- and long-term outcomes of patients who underwent laparoscopic gastrectomy (LADG) and to compare those outcomes with patients who underwent open surgery (ODG). There were no significant differences in overall survival or number of collected lymph nodes between two groups. The short-term outcomes, including postoperative hospital stay, postoperative complication rate, and intra-operative blood loss, were better in the LADG group. On this basis, the authors concluded that LADG could be an alternative surgical modality for treating AGC. However, we have some concerns about this because we think that the authors did not fulfill the points of discussion well enough to adequately demonstrate the feasibility of LADG for AGC.