A meta-analysis comparing hand-assisted laparoscopic right hemicolectomy and open right hemicolectomy for right-sided colon cancer

BACKGROUND: Mini-invasive colorectal cancer surgery was adopted widely in recent years. This meta-analysis aimed to compare hand-assisted laparoscopic surgery (HALS) with open right hemicolectomy (OS) for malignant disease. METHODS: PRISMA guidelines with random effects model were adopted using Review Manager Version 5.3 for pooled estimates. RESULTS: Seven studies that involved 506 patients were included. Compared to OS, HALS improved results in terms of blood loss (MD = 53.67, 95% CI 10.67 to 96.67, p = 0.01), time to first flatus (MD = 21.11, 95% CI 14.99 to 27.23, p < 0.00001), postoperative pain score, and overall hospital stay (MD = 3.47, 95% CI 2.12 to 4.82, p < 0.00001). There was no difference as concerns post-operative mortality, morbidity (OR = 1.55, 95% CI 0.89 to 2.7, p = 0.12), wound infection (OR = 1.69, 95% CI 0.60 to 4.76, p = 0.32), operative time (MD = − 16.10, 95% CI [− 36.57 to 4.36], p = 0.12), harvested lymph nodes (MD = 0.59, 95% CI − 0.18 to 1.36, p = 0.13), and recurrence (OR = 0.97, 95% CI 0.30 to 3.15, p = 0.96). CONCLUSIONS: HALS is an efficient alternative to OS in right colectomy which combines the advantages of OS with the mini-invasive surgery.