Background/Aim: The benefits of gastrectomy for elderly gastric cancer (GC) patients remain unknown. The aim of this study was to evaluate the validity of gastrectomy. Patients and Methods: Patients who had R0 or R1 resection and diagnosed as pathological Stage I-III GC were enrolled in this study. Patients were classified according to age: Elderly group (≥80 years old), non-Elderly group (70-79 years old), Standard group (≤69 years old). Results: As the age raised, the number of comorbidities increased and patients had a worse physical status. Operative procedure and postoperative complications of the Elderly group were similar to that of the non-Elderly group. The overall survival was similar in pathological Stages I and III between the Elderly and non-Elderly groups, while the Stage II Elderly group had shorter overall survival. Also, the Elderly group did not undergo adjuvant chemotherapy compared to other groups. Conclusion: Gastrectomy can be performed safely in elderly patients following gastrectomy, survival of elderly patients was similar to non-elderly patients. Therefore, gastrectomy is an acceptable treatment for elderly patients in good condition. The incidence of Gatric cancer has declined over the past decades (1); however, it is still one of the most common cancers worldwide (2). Gastrectomy is the main treatment for gastric cancer, but it might associate with severe postoperative gastrointestinal symptoms. Previous reports have shown that postoperative morbidity leads to poor prognosis, especially in elderly patients (3, 4). Aging is accompanied by a decline in the function of critical organs (5, 6). Postoperative morbidity and mortality increases as the age increases. Moreover, elderly patients often have several comorbidities at the time of diagnosis that sometimes affect survival (7, 8). Therefore, it is difficult to predict surgical risk, since physical status varies greatly among elderly individuals. The rate of gastrectomy in the elderly is increasing (9). Previous articles have shown that gastrectomy can be performed safely in elderly patients as in non-elderly patients (10, 11). However, following gastrectomy, pneumonia often develops leading to death of elderly patients (12). Also, elderly patients are likely to develop malnutrition (13). Therefore, it is still unclear whether gastrectomy improves the overall survival of elderly patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether gastrectomy is beneficial for elderly gastric cancer patients. Patients and Methods Study design. A single institutional retrospective cohort study was performed at the Kita-Harima Medical Center Hospital from January 2014 to December 2017. All patients who had R0 or R1 resection and diagnosed as pathological Stage I-III were enrolled into this study. Since younger patients tend to have less comorbidities and a better physical status, those under 70 years were considered as standard controls. We defined those over 80 years old as the Elderly group and those between 70-79 years old as the non-Elderly group. C...

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Introduction: The closure of the appendiceal stump is a crucial part of a laparoscopic appendectomy, and an endoloop or endostapler is generally used. The endoloop can be more cost effective than the endostapler. However, reports have shown that the endoloop has a higher postoperative abdominal abscess rate than the endostapler in complicated appendicitis. At our institution, we perform a purse-string suture after ligating by endoloop to reduce postoperative abdominal abscess risk. This study aimed to clarify whether this method could reduce the incidence of postoperative abdominal abscess compared with the endostapler.Methods: Patients with acute appendicitis were classified into the purse-string suture group (n = 149) and the endostapler group (n = 82). Postoperative outcomes were compared after propensity score matching (n = 47).Results: No significant difference was found between the two groups in terms of the patient characteristics and postoperative complications, including abdominal abscess. However, the purse-string suture group had more drain placement and a shorter hospital stay than the endostapler group (P = .04 and P = .02, respectively). In patients with complicated appendicitis, there was less drain placement and a shorter hospital stay in the purse-string suture group than in the endostapler group (P < .01 and P < .01, respectively). This might have reflected the difficulty of the operation. All postoperative abdominal abscesses occurred in complicated appendicitis cases.Conclusions: Endoloop with additional purse-string suture had a lower incidence of abscess than previous reports of using endoloop alone. Moreover, the postoperative abdominal abscess rate is similar between the two closure methods.