The effect of perigastric lipolymphatic tissue grouping by surgeon on the number of pathologic sampled lymph nodes after radical gastrectomy

To analyze the impact of perigastric lipolymphatic tissue grouping by the surgeon on the number of pathologic sampled lymph nodes and to explore the appropriate lymph node delivery process. The authors collected the medical records of gastric cancer patients who were hospitalized in Wuhan Union Hospital during the period January 2016 to January 2018. The authors selected 126 patients and divided them into experimental group and control group, 63 cases in each group. Samples of standard complete gastrectomy or distal gastrectomy +D2 lymph node dissection was performed. In experimental group, the fresh en bloc specimen was treated by the surgeon before the formalin fixation. The perigastric lipolymphatic tissue was divided into the lymph node grouping according to JSGC guideline III. Then the stomach and each group of lipolymphatic tissue were fixed and then transferred to the pathologic department, then the lymph nodes were harvested by the pathological technician. In control group, the whole en bloc specimen was fixed with formalin and then lymph nodes were detected by palpation and thin slice inspection, and then harvested by the pathological technician. The lymph node acquisition was compared in 2 groups. The total number of lymph nodes in experimental group is 2611, the number of negative lymph nodes is 2273; the total number of lymph nodes in control group is 1643, the number of negative lymph nodes is 1351; the comparison difference in 2 groups was statistical sense (P < .01); patients with lymph node which reach 25 pieces/person of experimental group could reach a ratio of 90.1%, and that is 47.6% in the control group, the comparison difference in 2 groups was statistical sense (P < .01), the number of positive lymph nodes did not increase significantly compared with the control group, and there was no statistical significance in the 2 groups. Dissecting the perigastric lipolymphatic tissue into lymph node groups by the surgeon might improve the total number of lymph node harvested by the pathological technician, and increase the rate of cases with >25 lymph nodes. Our results also implicated that, when the routing harvested lymph nodes were more than 20, the increasing number by perigastric lipolymphatic tissue grouping might result from more negative lymph nodes detected and might not result in stage migrating.