Survival of patients treated by an autonomic nerve-preserving gastrectomy for early gastric cancer.
OBJECTIVE
Autonomic nerve preservation in a gastrectomy for gastric cancer improves the postoperative quality of life. We retrospectively examined the survival of patients treated by an autonomic nerve-preserving gastrectomy in comparison to the survival of the patients treated by a conventional gastrectomy.


METHODS
The survival of 385 patients treated by an autonomic nerve-preserving gastrectomy for clinical early gastric cancer (the ANP group) was compared with that of 285 patients treated by a conventional gastrectomy (non-ANP group).


RESULTS
Among the ANP group, the numbers of patients with tumor invasion to the mucosa, submucosa, and muscularis propria were 210, 166, and 9, respectively, whereas the numbers of patients with lymph node metastasis grades of N0, N1, and N2 were 360, 21, and 4, respectively. The overall 5-year survival rate of the ANP group was 94.7%, which was superior to that of the non-ANP group (90.4%; P = 0.003). The 5-year survival rates of patients with lymph node metastasis were 94.9% and 91.8% in the ANP and non-ANP groups, respectively (P = 0.733). Only 3 patients in the ANP group died from gastric cancer.


CONCLUSIONS
The survival of patients treated by an autonomic nerve-preserving gastrectomy was equivalent to that of patients treated by a conventional gastrectomy, thus suggesting that an autonomic nervepreserving gastrectomy could be a useful procedure for the treatment of early gastric cancer.
Sasada
Shinsuke
S
Department of Surgery, Hiroshima City Hospital, Hiroshima, Japan.
Ninomiya
Motoki
M
Nishizaki
Masahiko
M
Harano
Masao
M
Ojima
Yasutomo
Y
Matsukawa
Hiroyoshi
H
Shiozaki
Shigehiro
S
Ohno
Satoshi
S
Takakura
Norihisa
N
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D005743:Gastrectomy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D011788:Quality of Life; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013270:Stomach / Q000294:innervation / Q000601:surgery; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome