• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.223-230
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• 2009

Purpose: Circular stapled gastrectomy has been the favored procedure with its feasibility and the shortened operative time, but anastomotic leakage, stenosis and bleeding have been reported as problems. The aim of this study was to identify what can be done to supplement the safety of this technique by examining the potential complications of performing circular stapled gastrojejunosomy after radical subtotal gastrectomy. Materials and Methods: As subjects, this study selected 1,391 patients who underwent gastrojejunostomy after radical subtotal gastrectomy because of gastric cancer at our Department of Surgery from Jan. 1998 to Dec. 2007. The patients were divided into Group I (n=479) who underwent hand-sewn gastrojejunostomy, Group II (n=48) who underwent linear stapled gastrojejunostomy and Group III (n=864) who underwent circular stapled gastrojejunostomy. Group III was re-divided into two subgroups on the basis of the point of time that a visual check was intraoperatively performed at the anastomotic site: Group III-A (n=198) before and Group III-B (n=666) after. The characteristics and complications of the patients were then compared. Results: For the comparison of the complications between Group I, Group II and Group III, anastomotic leakage was found in 7 cases (1.5%) in Group I, in 1 case (2.0%) in Group II and in 10 case (1.2%) in Group III, and anastomotic stenosis were found in 4 cases (0.8%) in Group I, 1 case (2.0%) in Group II and 5 case (0.6%) in Group III. Anastomotic bleeding was found in 32 cases (6.7%) in Group I, in 5 cases (10.4%) in Group II and in 67 cases (7.7%) in Group III. For the comparison of complications between Group III-A and Group III-B, anastomotic bleeding was found in 57 cases (28.8%) in Group III-A and 10 cases (1.5%) in Group III-B and the difference was statistically significant (P=0.037). Conclusion: Circular stapled gastrojejunostomy after radical subtotal gastrectomy is recommended because of the safety and feasibility of this technique, but bleeding at the anastomotic site may be the critical issue. In conclusion, direct inspection for bleeding at the anastomotic site during the operation will improve the safety of performing circular stapler anastomosis.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.103-108
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• 2006

Purpose: The circular stapled Billroth I gastrectomy has been gradually popularized because of several advantages. Thus, this study aims to identify what to be supplemented for the safety of this technique by examining the potential complication after the circular stapled Billroth I gastrectomy. Materials and Methods: This study selected 594 patients who underwent the circular stapled Billroth I gastrectomy because of the gastric cancer in our department of surgery from Jan. 1998 to Dec. 2004 as the subjects. As of Jan. 2001 when the bleeding on the anastomosis site was visually checked through the small incision at the opposite curvature to the lesion of the stomach to be resected and so the operation was completed, the patients were divided into the Group I (n=219) and Group II (n=375), which were the patients before and after Jan. 2001, respectively. Then, the clinical characteristics and postoperative anastomotic complications of both groups were compared. Results: For the comparison of complications between two groups, the anastomotic leakage was found in four cases in Group I and three cases in Group II (p=0.196). The stenosis on the anastomosis region was not observed in both groups. The bleeding on the anastomosis region illustrates the statistically significant difference between Group I and Group II, with 43 cases and 2 cases, respectively (P=0.0019). Conclusion: The circular stapled Billroth I gastrectomy is recommended because of several advantages of this technique. However, the bleeding on the anastomosis site may be indicated as the critical issue. Accordingly, the visual check on the bleeding on the anastomosis site during the operation will improve the safety of circular stapler.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.139-143
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• 2005

As increasing gastrointestinal pathologies, general and thoracic surgeries using circular staplers have been dramatically increased. Because of convenience for surgical procedure, recently, various circular staplers for anastomosis have been used widely. Since the circular staplers conventional have used the displacement control method, however, the anastomosis could have various biomechanical conditions. To do that, biomechanical system of gastrointestinal soft tissue should be examined to control the anastomotic condition. In this study, a new intelligent robot used in circular anastomosis. The intelligent robot driven by a stepper motor and controlled by a digital signal processor.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.27-34
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• 2008

Purpose: Many recent studies have reported on the feasibility and usefulness of laparoscopy assisted distal gastrectomy (LADG) for treating early gastric cancer. On the other hand, there has been few reports about laparoscopy assisted total gastrectomy (LATG) because upper located gastric cancer is relatively rare and the surgical technique is more difficult than that for LADG, We now present our procedure and results of performing LATG for the gastric cancer located in the upper or middle portion of the stomach. Materials and Methods: From Jan 2005 to Sep 2007, 96 patients underwent LATG by four surgeons at the Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea. Among them, 48 consecutive patients who were operated on by asingle surgeon were analyzed with respect to the clinicopathological features, the surgical results and the postoperative courses with using the prospectively collected laparoscopy surgery data. Results: There was no conversion to open surgery during LATG. For all the reconstructions, Roux-en Y esophago-jejunostomy and D1+beta lymphadenectomy were the standard procedures. The mean operation time was $212{\pm}67$ minutes. The mean total number of retrieved lymph nodes was $28.9{\pm}10.54$ (range: $12{\sim}64$) and all the patients had a clear proximal resection margin in their final pathologic reports. The mean time to passing gas, first oral feeding and discharge from the hospital was 2.98, 3.67 and 7.08 days, respectively. There were 5 surgical complications and 2 non-surgical complications for 5 (10.4%) patients, and there was no mortality. None of the patients needed operation because of complications and they recovered with conservative treatments. The mean operation time remained constant after 20 cases and so a learning curve was present. The morbidity rate was not different between the two periods, but the postoperative course was significantly better after the learning curve. Analysis of the factors contributing to the postoperative morbidity, with using logistic regression analysis, showed that the 8MI is the only contributing factor forpostoperative complications (P=0.029, HR=2.513, 95% CI=1.097-5.755). Conclusions: LATG with regional lymph node dissection for upper and middle early gastric cancer is considered to be a safe, feasible method that showed an excellent postoperative course and acceptable morbidity. BMI should be considered in the patient selection at the beginning period because of the impact of the BMI on the postoperative morbidity.