Review Article Intracorporeal Anastomosis in Laparoscopic Gastric Cancer Surgery

Laparoscopic gastrectomy has become widely used as a minimally invasive technique for the treatment of gastric cancer. When it was first introduced, most surgeons preferred a laparoscopic-assisted approach with a minilaparotomy rather than a totally laparoscopic pro-cedure because of the technical challenges of achieving an intracorporeal anastomosis. Recently, with improved skills and instruments, several surgeons have reported the safety and feasibility of a totally laparoscopic gastrectomy with intracorporeal anastomosis. This review describes the recent technical advances in intracorporeal anastomoses using circular and linear staplers that allow for totally lapa-roscopic distal, total, and proximal gastrectomies. Data that demonstrate advantages in early surgical outcomes of a total laparoscopic method compared to laparoscopic-assisted operations are also discussed