title: Spleen-preserving splenic lymph node dissection in radical total gastrectomy.
abstract: Radical gastrectomy has been recognized as the standard surgical treatment for advanced gastric cancer, and essentially applied in a wide variety of clinical settings. The thoroughness of lymph node dissection is an important prognostic factor for patients with advanced gastric cancer. Splenic lymph node dissection is required during D2 radical gastrectomy for upper stomach cancer. This is often accompanied by removal of the spleen in the past few decades. A growing number of investigators believe, however, that the spleen plays an important role as an immune organ, and thus they encourage the application of a spleen-preserving method for splenic hilum lymph node dissection.
authors.affiliation: Gastrointestinal Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang 330006, China.
authors.forename: Zhigang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Jie
authors.forename: Zhengrong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Mengmeng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Liangqing
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Guoyang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhang
keywords: D2 radical resection; Gastric cancer; lymph node dissection; splenic hilum