title: Laparoscopy-assisted versus open distal gastrectomy for early gastric cancer: A meta-analysis based on seven randomized controlled trials.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study aims to answer the superiority of comparing laparoscopy-assisted distal gastrectomy (LADG) with open distal gastrectomy (ODG) in the treatment early gastric cancer (EGC).
  
  
  METHODS
  A comprehensive search up to May 31, 2014 was conducted on PubMed, Web of science, and the Cochrane Library. All eligible studies comparing LADG versus ODG were included. Data synthesis and statistical analysis were performed using RevMan 5.2 software.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seven randomized controlled trials (RCTs) totaling 390 patients (195 LADG and 195 ODG) were analyzed. Compared to ODG, LADG showed longer operative time (WMD = 79.60; 95%CI = 59.86 to 99.35; P < 0.00001), but was associated with less blood loss (WMD = -108.11; 95%CI = -145.97 to -70.26; P < 0.00001), fewer administered analgesics (WMD = -1.70; 95%CI = -2.19 to -1.22; P < 0.00001), fewer number of harvested lymph node (WMD = -2.77; 95%CI = -4.38 to -1.16; P = 0.0007), lower incidence of postoperative complications (OR = 0.26; 95%CI = 0.13 to 0.54; P = 0.0003), shorter postoperative hospital stay (WMD = -1.0; 95% CI = -1.83 to -0.16; P = 0.02) and earlier passage of flatus (WMD = -0.62; 95% CI = -0.96 to -0.27; P = 0.0005).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This meta-analysis demonstrated that LADG significantly reduced blood loss, decreased the frequency of analgesic administration, faster recovery, a shorter hospital stay and fewer postoperative complications compared with ODG, though at the price of longer operative times and the number of harvested lymph nodes lesser as compared to ODG.
authors: Gansu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China.
authors: Yuan
authors: Y
authors: Deng
authors: Gansu Provincial Hospital, Lanzhou, China.
authors: Yan
authors: Y
authors: Zhang
authors: Gansu Provincial Hospital, Lanzhou, China. Electronic address: gt7890@sina.com.
authors: Tian-Kang
authors: TK
authors: Guo
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005743:Gastrectomy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D061646:Operative Time; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Early gastric cancer (EGC); Laparoscopy-assisted distal gastrectomy (LADG); Meta-analysis; Open distal gastrectomy (ODG)