Comparison of open gastrectomy and the laparoscopic procedure in advanced gastric cancer

Introduction and aim: Gastric cancer is one of the most frequent neoplasias in Peru and worldwide, with surgery as the only potentially curative or palliative treatment. Laparoscopic gastrectomy is the most frequent alternative surgical technique utilized, but one of its main drawbacks is the technical difficulty involved in perigastric lymphadenectomy. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the clinical and surgical characteristics, postoperative complications, and survival rate in patients with advanced gastric cancer that underwent open gastrectomy or laparoscopic gastrectomy at the Hospital Nacional P.N.P “Luis N. Sáenz” in Lima, Peru, within the time frame of 2005 to 2014. Materials and methods: An analytic, longitudinal, retrospective cohort study was conducted on 482 patients that underwent surgery for gastric cancer, within the time frame of January 2005 to December 2014. The clinical, epidemiologic, and postoperative characteristics were evaluated, and a survival analysis was carried out. Results: Of the 475 patients included in the study, 236 underwent open gastrectomy and 239 had laparoscopic gastrectomy. Median follow-up time was 61.9 months in the open surgery group and 46.7 months in the laparoscopy group. There were fewer postoperative complications in the laparoscopy group and no statistically significant difference between the two groups in relation to the survival analysis. Conclusions: In our study, laparoscopic gastrectomy resulted in fewer postoperative complications, compared with the open procedure, but did not modify overall survival during the follow-up period.