ABSTRACT
Objective:To investigate the efficacy difference of totally laparoscopic total gastrectomy (TLTG) and laparoscopically assisted total gastrectomy (LATG) on radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer, and further to explore the safety and feasibility of totally laparoscopic esophagojejunostomy.Methods:PubMed, Web of Science, Wanfang and CNKI database were searched for all relevant articles regarding to TLTG versus LATG for gastric cancer published up to September 2019. The search keywords included: gastric/stomach cancer, total gastrectomy, totally/completely laparoscopic, laparoscopic-assisted/laparoscopy-assisted/laparoscopically assisted, esophagojejunostomy/esophagojejunal anastomosis. Meta-analysis was performed with RevMan 5.3 software.Results:A total of 258 articles were retrieved, and 11 studies were finally included after layer by layer screening, with a total sample size of 2421 cases, including 1115 cases in the TLTG group and 1306 cases in the LATG group. There were no statistical difference in age and gender between the two groups, while the mean BMI in the TLTG group was significantly higher than that in the LATG group ( P=0.01). Compared to the LATG group, shorter surgical incision ( P<0.001), less intraoperative blood loss ( P=0.003), larger number of retrieved lymph nodes ( P=0.04), less time to first oral intake ( P=0.03), and shorter postoperative hospital stay ( P=0.02) were found in the TLTG group. There were no significant differences in operation time, anastomotic time, tumor size, proximal resection margin length, postoperative pain score, time to first flatus, rate of postoperative anastomosis-related complication (including anastomotic fistula, stenosis and bleeding) and the overall incidence of postoperative complications ( P>0.05). Conclusions:Totally laparoscopic esophagojejunostomy is safe and feasible, and also suitable for obese patients. TLTG has advantages of minimally invasive, less intraoperative blood loss and easier access to lymph nodes compared to LATG. Totally laparoscopic gastrectomy will probably be the surgical trend for gastric cancer in the future.