Inspection of Safety and Accuracy of D2 Lymph Node Dissection in Laparoscopy-Assisted Distal Gastrectomy

Background There is a consensus on the indication of laparoscopy-assisted distal gastrectomy (LADG) for early gastric cancer that needs D1 + α or D1 + β lymph node dissection. However, many gastrointestinal surgeons consider D2 lymph node dissection in LADG to be difficult, therefore, only a few medical institutions have performed D2 lymph node dissection in LADG. We examined the safety and accuracy of D2 dissection in LADG by comparing with open distal gastrectomy (ODG), as the first step to operate on advanced gastric cancer.