title: Assessment of postoperative symptoms after laparoscopy-assisted distal gastrectomy for stage I gastric cancer.
abstract: Laparoscopic gastrectomy has the advantage of early recovery at the initial phase after surgery. However, there are only few reports of mid- or long-term observations of patients' quality of life. In all, 254 Stage IA or IB [laparoscopy-assisted distal gastrectomy (LADG): 177, open distal gastrectomy (ODG): 77] patients were enrolled. Heart burn, diarrhea, abdominal pain, amount of food intake, and body weight of each patient were investigated at 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year after surgery. Recovery of the amount of oral intake for the LADG group occurred earlier than for the ODG group; significant differences were seen at months 1 and 6 postoperatively. A significantly lower incidence of diarrhea was observed in the LADG group at months 6 and 12 postoperatively. Early recovery of the amount of food intake and fewer incidences of diarrhea were shown to have mid-term merits for postgastrectomy symptoms.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Gastroenterological Surgery I, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kawamura
authors.forename: Norihiko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Shigenori
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Homma
authors.forename: Nozomi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Minagawa
authors.forename: Susumu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shibasaki
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Akinobu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Taketomi
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D005743:Gastrectomy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D011788:Quality of Life; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*
keywords: Gastrectomy; Gastric cancer; Laparoscopy; Postoperative symptoms