Laparoscopic Gastric Resection for Gastric Cancer: Is Intracorporeal Anastomosis Necessary?

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: In surgical dissection, laparoscopic approach and open techniques do not differ significantly, but there is still no consensus on how anastomosis should be performed in both cardia and distal gastric tumors. Anastomosis can be performed by laparoscopy-assisted mini-laparotomy or by intracorporeal suture techniques. In this study, we aim to present our four years of clinical experience and short-term surgical results from 133 cases in order to evaluate the necessity of laparoscopic anastomosis. METHODS: This study was approved by Ethics Committee (No: 1-8-19, date: 14/01/2019). Patients who underwent curative resection with the diagnosis of gastric adenocarcinoma between January 2014 and January 2018 in the Ankara University Surgical Oncology Department were included in the study. RESULTS: Of the 133 patients included in the study, 108 (81.2) were male and the mean age was 60.51 ± 12.0 years. The time of anastomosis was significantly longer in patients undergoing intracorporeal anastomosis (p = 0.021). The incidence of anastomotic leakage was significantly higher in the group undergoing intracorporeal anastomosis (p = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS: We think that esophagojejunostomy and jejunojejunostomy anastomoses in patients undergoing total gastrectomy should be performed with intracorporeal techniques in terms of benefit risk assessment. We believe that it is more feasible to continue the case with mini laparotomy when anastomosis is reached in patients who are planned to have gastrojejunostomy. In addition, in terms of intracorporeal anastomoses and advanced laparoscopic techniques, intracorporeal anastomoses performed in gastric cancer surgery for a laparoscopist who has completed the learning curve do not appear to be very different in terms of anastomosis safety.