Laparoscopic Versus Open Gastrectomy With Splenic Hilum Lymph Nodes Dissection

Total gastrectomy with D2 lymphadenectomy remains the standard surgical therapy for patients with advanced proximal gastric cancer. Although lymph nodes dissection along with the splenic hilum (No.10) is recommended by the Japanese Gastric Cancer Treatment Guidelines, however, complete removal of the No. 10 is technically challenging due to the tortuous splenic vessels and the high possibility of injury to the parenchyma of the spleen and pancreas. Recently, the application of minimally invasive surgery for advanced gastric cancer is gaining popularity. However, laparoscopic total gastrectomy (LTG) with standard D2 lymphadenectomy was still not widely performed, because pancreas- and spleen-preserving splenic hilum lymph node dissection were mainly challenging manipulations for laparoscopic surgeons. Therefore,the investigators aim to investigate the safety and feasibility of LTG with spleen-preserving splenic hilum lymph node dissection for proximal advanced gastric cancer and compare the early results of this procedure with open total gastrectomy (OTG).