Patients' preoperative background causes gastric stasis after laparoscopy-assisted pylorus-preserving gastrectomy.

INTRODUCTION: Despite technical improvements in laparoscopic gastrectomy, gastric stasis is still a serious problem in laparoscopy-assisted pylorus-preserving gastrectomy (LAPPG). The aim of this study was to investigate the factors that might cause gastric stasis in LAPPG.

METHODS: From April 2004 through November 2012, 85 patients with cT1N0 middle-third gastric cancer who underwent LAPPG at Kitasato University Hospital; these patients were included in the present study. Infra-pyloric vein (IPV)-preserving LAPPG was performed in 41 patients. We compared the rate of gastric stasis in the IPV-preserving and the IPV-non-preserving groups, and analyzed the clinicopathological factors that might have caused gastric stasis.

RESULTS: We did not demonstrate that preservation of the IPV could prevent gastric stasis in the early and late postoperative periods. Symptoms of gastric stasis were most frequently recognized 1 year after surgery. A significantly higher proportion of preoperative ASA class 2 patients had gastric stasis than did not (80.0% [12/15] vs 48.6% [34/70], P=0.02). Among the ASA class 2 patients, a significantly greater proportion of those with depressed activities of daily living than those with normal activities of daily living had gastric stasis (66.7% [4/6] vs 20.0% [8/40], P = 0.015).

CONCLUSIONS: The clinical significance of the IPV preservation in LAPPG could not be demonstrated. LAPPG should be performed for ASA class 1 patients or those with maintained preoperative activities of daily living.