The Initiation of Laparoscopic Gastric Surgery in an Academic Hospital in Greece: Early Results

Background and objective Recent studies have demonstrated that minimally invasive techniques are a viable alternative to open surgery for the treatment of gastric cancer (GC), providing both intraoperative and postoperative benefits for patients. In addition, preliminary data suggest that laparoscopic gastrectomy (LG) may have morbidity, mortality, and oncologic outcomes comparable to those of the traditional open approach for treating GC. This study aimed to review our institution's experience with totally laparoscopic gastrectomy for the treatment of early- and advanced-stage GC. Methods A retrospective study was conducted to examine the short-term outcomes of LG performed at Attikon University Hospital in Athens between June 2022 and November 2024. We reviewed postoperative complications, surgical margins, the number of resected lymph nodes, estimated blood loss, length of hospital stay, and recurrence rates. Results Fourteen patients with gastric adenocarcinoma were included in the study. The mean operative time was four hours, and blood loss was minimal. The median length of hospital stay was six days. The mean number of harvested lymph nodes was 16. Early postoperative complications occurred in two patients and included delayed gastric emptying and pulmonary infection. There were no postoperative deaths. Conclusions Totally laparoscopic gastrectomy represents a feasible treatment option for gastric malignancy. Our early institutional experience demonstrates the technical feasibility of this approach, with favorable perioperative outcomes and encouraging short-term survival. While the benefits of the laparoscopic approach are well recognized, larger prospective studies with long-term follow-up are required to confirm its oncologic equivalence or superiority over open gastrectomy (OG) in patients with advanced disease.