Cooperative laparoscopic endoscopic and hybrid laparoscopic surgery for upper gastrointestinal tumors: Current status

To investigate the cooperative laparoscopic and endoscopic techniques used for the resection of upper gastrointestinal tumors.

A systematic research of the literature was performed in PubMed for English and French language articles about laparoscopic and endoscopic cooperative, combined, hybrid and rendezvous techniques. Only original studies using these techniques for the resection of early gastric cancer, benign tumors and gastrointestinal stromal tumors of the stomach and the duodenum were included. By excluding case series of less than 10 patients, 25 studies were identified. The study design, number of cases, tumor pathology size and location, the operative technique name, the endoscopy team and surgical team role, operative time, type of closure of visceral wall defect, blood loss, complications and length of hospital stay of these studies were evaluated. Additionally all cooperative techniques found were classified and are presented in a systematic approach.

The studies identified were case series and retrospective cohort studies. A total of 706 patients were operated on with a cooperative technique. The tumors resected were only gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) in 4 studies, GIST and various benign submucosal tumors in 22 studies, early gastric cancer (pT1a and pT1b) in 6 studies and early duodenal cancer in 1 study. There was important heterogeneity between the studies. The operative techniques identified were: laparoscopic assisted endoscopic resection, endoscopic assisted wedge resection, endoscopic assisted transgastric and intragastric surgery, laparoscopic endoscopic cooperative surgery (LECS), laparoscopic assisted endoscopic full thickness resection (LAEFR), clean non exposure technique and non-exposed endoscopic wall-inversion surgery (NEWS). Each technique is illustrated with the roles of the endoscopic and laparoscopic teams; the indications, characteristics and short term results are described.

Along with the traditional cooperative techniques, new procedures like LECS, LAEFR and NEWS hold great promise for the future of minimally invasive oncologic procedures.