title: Laparoscopic assisted distal gastrectomy for early gastric cancer: Five years' experience.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Laparoscopic assisted gastrectomy is being reported increasingly as the treatment of choice for early gastric cancer. However, no reports concerning the prognosis of patients who have undergone laparoscopic assisted distal gastrectomy (LADG) for early gastric cancer or data comparing the results to those obtained after open gastric surgery are yet available.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective study was performed comparing laparoscopic assisted and open distal gastrectomies for early gastric cancer. Eighty-nine patients who underwent LADG were compared to 60 who underwent conventional open distal gastrectomy (DG) in terms of pathologic findings, operative outcome, complications, and survival.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were no significant differences between LADG and DG in operation time (209 vs 200 minutes), complication rate (9% vs 18%), and 5-year survival rate (98% vs 95%). There were differences between LADG and DG with regard to blood loss (237 vs 412 mL), number of lymph nodes (19 vs 25), postoperative stay (17 vs 25 days), and the duration of epidural analgesia (2 vs 4 days) ( P < .05 each).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  For properly selected patients, LADG can be a curative and minimally invasive treatment for early gastric cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgical Science, Graduate School of Medicine, Gunma University, Japan. emochiki@showa.gunma-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Erito
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mochiki
authors.forename: Youichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kamiyama
authors.forename: Ryusuke
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Aihara
authors.forename: Toshihiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakabayashi
authors.forename: Takayuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Asao
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kuwano
mesh_terms: D042241:Early Diagnosis; D005260:Female; D005743:Gastrectomy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome