surgery, including less invasiveness, less pain, earlier recovery, and better cosmesis [2]. Kitano et al. [3] first applied and described laparoscopy-assisted distal gastrectomy (LADG) as treatment for early gastric cancer (EGC) in 1994.With the development of various diagnostic modalities and the spread of mass screening, EGC now accounts for more than 50% of the total incidence of gastric cancer in Japan. The low frequency of lymph node metastasis in patients with EGC is well known; it reportedly occurs in 2%-5% of those with mucosal cancer and 11%-20% of those with submucosal cancer [4]. To allow for the treatment of EGC in patients without a risk of lymph node metastasis, laparoscopic wedge resection (LWR) with a lesion-lifting method was developed by Ohgami et al. [5] in 1992, and intragastric mucosal resection (IGMR) was developed by Ohashi [6] in the early 1990s. With the recent development of endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) and endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) [7], the use of LWR and IGMR seems to be decreasing, whereas the use of LADG with lymph node dissection has increased in patients with EGC with a risk of lymph node metastasis.The past 15 years have seen remarkable advances in laparoscopic surgical techniques and instruments, such as laparoscopic coagulating shears [8]. Extended lymph node dissection (D2) and total gastrectomy can now be performed laparoscopically [9,10]. However, LADG remains controversial as a standard surgery for gastric cancer because there are few studies evaluating the technical difficulty, advantages, and oncological feasibility of LADG.Here, we review reports, in the English-language literature, of LADG with lymph node dissection as treatment for cancer, to clarify the current status of this technique and related problems.
AbstractSince 1991, laparoscopic surgery has been adopted for the treatment of gastric cancer, and it has been performed worldwide, especially in Japan and Korea. We reviewed the English-language literature to clarify the current status of and problems associated with laparoscopic gastrectomy with lymph node dissection as treatment for gastric cancer. In Japan, early-stage gastric cancer (T1/T2, N0) is considered the only indication for laparoscopic gastrectomy. As yet, there is little high-level evidence based on long-term outcome supporting laparoscopic gastrectomy for cancer, but reports have provided level 3 evidence that the procedure is technically safe, and that it yields better short-term outcomes than open surgery; that is, recovery is faster, hospital stay is shorter, there is less pain, and cosmesis is better. However, investigation into the oncological outcome of laparoscopic gastrectomy as treatment for cancer is lacking. To establish laparoscopic surgery as a standard treatment for gastric cancer, multicenter randomized controlled trials to compare the short-and longterm outcomes of laparoscopic surgery versus open surgery are necessary.