D2 dissection in laparoscopic and open gastrectomy for gastric cancer

To evaluate the radicalness and safety of laparoscopic D2 dissection for gastric cancer.

Clinicopathological data from 209 patients with gastric cancer, who underwent radical gastrectomy with D2 dissection between January 2007 and February 2011, were analyzed retrospectively. Among these patients, 131 patients underwent laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy (LAG) and 78 underwent open gastrectomy (OG). The parameters analyzed included operative time, blood loss, blood transfusion, morbidity, mortality, the number of harvested lymph nodes (HLNs), and pathological stage.

There were no significant differences in sex, age, types of radical resection [radical proximal gastrectomy (PG + D2), radical distal gastrectomy (DG + D2) and radical total gastrectomy (TG + D2)], and stages between the LAG and OG groups (P > 0.05). Among the two groups, 127 cases (96.9%) and 76 cases (97.4%) had 15 or more HLNs, respectively. The average number of HLNs was 26.1 ± 11.4 in the LAG group and 24.2 ± 9.3 in the OG group (P = 0.233). In the same type of radical resection, there were no significant differences in the number of HLNs between the two groups (PG + D2: 21.7 ± 7.5 vs. 22.4 ± 9.3; DG + D2: 25.7 ± 11.0 vs. 22.3 ± 7.9; TG + D2: 30.9 ± 13.4 vs. 29.3 ± 10.4; P > 0.05 for all comparisons). Tumor free margins were obtained in all cases. Compared with OG group, the LAG group had significantly less blood loss, but a longer operation time (P < 0.001). The morbidity of the LAG group was 9.9%, which was not significantly different from the OG group (7.7%) (P = 0.587). The mortality was zero in both groups.

Laparoscopic D2 dissection is equivalent to OG in the number of HLNs, regardless of tumor location. Thus, this procedure can achieve the same radicalness as OG.