Laparoscopic Gastric Cancer Surgery: An Early Experience from a Developing World Country

Abstract

Introduction Gastric cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide. Asian countries like Japan, China, and South Korea have a high incidence; those with a low incidence include India, Pakistan, and Thailand 1 .Gastric cancer is the fourth common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer related deaths worldwide 2 . The age adjusted stomach cancer incidence among Kashmiri males was36.7/100,000 and among Kashmiri females was 9.9/100,000 in a study from 1986-1989. It indicated that there is a high rate of gastric cancer in Kashmiri population compared to other parts of the country 3 . The first laparoscopy-assisted distal gastrectomy (LADG) for early gastric cancer (EGC) was reported in 1994. Since then there have been major breakthroughs in the field of gastric cancer surgery 4 . Understanding the comparative effectiveness of laparoscopic and open approaches to resection of early-stage gastric cancer is an important issue in the surgical management of this condition 5 . There has been a tremendous improvement in laparoscopic approach with the use of endoscopic staplers making intracorporeal anastomosis feasible and much easier than before. Many studies showed long term results of laparoscopic gastric surgeries are comparable with those of open gastrectomy 6-8 .