Comparison of laparoscopy-assisted by conventional open distal gastrectomy and systemic lymphadenectomy in early gastric cancer

To evaluate short-term surgical validity, surgical outcome of the laparoscopy-assisted distal gastrectomy (LADG) with extraperigastric lymph node dissection was compared with that of the conventional open distal gastrectomy (CODG) in patients with early gastric cancer. One hundred and forty-seven patients with early gastric cancer received radical distal gastrectomy during 2002 and 2003, where LADG was undergone in 71 patients. The present study shows that LADG with extraperigastric lymph node dissection offers several perioperative benefits, including less pain, a shorter hospital stay, less impaired nutrition, and a lower inflammatory response than CODG without increasing either in postoperative morbidity or mortality.