Background:Laparoscopic surgery with a small laparotomy reportedly has several advantages over conventional open surgery, including less invasiveness, less pain, earlier recovery,and bettercosmoses. Theaimofthis study was tocomparetechnicalfeasibilityand
early clinical outcomes of laparoscopic-assis'cd and open radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer. Patients and methods:ln our prospective study, patients with distal gastric cancer were divided the patients in two groups (a) patients underwent radical gastrectomy by LADG (21 patients)and(b) aDG (21 patients).Forthepostoperativepathologicresults,the tumor-nodalmetastasis (1NM) stage, grade of tumor differentiation, distal and proximal margins, the number of harvested lymph nodes were evaluated.Staging was done according to the 7th edition of the UICC tumor, node, and metastasis (TNM) classification. 0 Iand D2 lymphadenectomy with curative RO intention was attempted in all cases.Operative mortality and morbidity were assessed. Results: The time to initiate oral intake, and postoperative hospital stay were significantly shorter in the LADG group than ill the ODG group (P < 0.05).There no significant difference between the operative time in the LADG group and the aDO group (P = 0.6), whereas blood loss and blood infusion frequency were significantly lower (P < O.OOOt) in the LADG group in comparison to ODG group. Conclusion:Laparoscopic-assisted distal gastrectomy for distal gastric cancer is a safe and feasible technique alternative to open gastrectomy, with at least similar short term oncologic results. However, laparoscopic gastric surgery is in need to Adequate training and technical support especially in D2 lymphadenectomy.