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Background: Laparoscopic intracorporeal esophagojejunostomy (EJ) is a useful method in totally laparoscopic total gastrectomy (TLTG) for treating upper-third gastric cancer. The two methods of laparoscopic intracorporeal EJ—functional and overlap—have not been compared side-by-side in terms of safety and feasibility. Methods: Retrospective review and analysis of the data of 490 consecutive patients who underwent TLTG by either functional method (n?=?365) or overlap (n?=?125) method for upper- or middle-third gastric cancer was conducted between January, 2011 and May, 2018 at Asan Medical Center (Seoul, Korea). One-to-one propensity score matching (PSM) was performed to compare age, sex, body mass index, American Society of Anesthesiologist score, the presence of comorbidity, number of comorbidities, clinical T stage, clinical nodal stage, clinical TNM stage, history of previous abdominal surgery, and combined surgery. After PSM, 244 patients were divided into functional method group and overlap method group (n?=?122, each). The surgical outcomes and EJ-related complications were compared between the two groups. Results: No significant difference was found between the two groups in terms of early surgical outcomes such as operative time, time to first flatus, postoperative hospital stay, transfusion during surgery, transfusion after surgery, and administration of analgesics. However, the pain score was significantly lower in overlap method group (6.21?±?1.83) than functional method group (6.97?±?2.09, p?<?0.05). The overlap method was also associated with significantly fewer late complications (3.28% vs. 12.30%; p?<?0.05), lower Clavien–Dindo classification grade (p?<?0.05), and fewer EJ-related complications (0.82% vs. 6.56%; p?<?0.05), as compared with the functional method. Conclusion: The overlap method was safer and more feasible than the functional method for TLTG in gastric cancer patients, based on the finding of significantly lower incidence of EJ-related complications.

Background: Upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) is one of the major manifestations of gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) of the stomach. Several studies have reported that GIST bleeding is associated with poor prognosis. However, only case reports have reported hemostasis modalities for treating hemorrhagic gastric GIST. To identify clinical outcome of gastric GIST bleeding, we analyzed risk factors and prognosis of hemorrhagic GIST evaluating hemostasis methods. Methods: Total 697 patients histopathologically diagnosed with primary gastric GIST between January 1998 and May 2015 were enrolled to the study, retrospectively. Results: Of 697 total patients, 46 (6.6%) patients had UGIB. Endoscopic intervention, transarterial embolization, or surgical intervention was performed for initial hemostasis in 15, 2, and 1, respectively. Over a median of 68 months of follow-up, 16 patients in bleeding group and 88 patients in non-bleeding group died; the 5-year survival rate was 79.4% in bleeding group and 91.8% in non-bleeding group (p = 0.004). Multivariate analysis showed that significant risk factors for gastric GIST bleeding included the maximal tumor diameter > 5 cm and Ki-67 positivity. Age ≥ 60 [hazard ratio (HR) = 8.124, p= 0.048], necrosis (HR = 5.093, p = 0.027), and bleeding (HR 5.743, p = 0.034) were significant factors for overall survival of gastric GIST patients. Conclusions: Bleeding risk of gastric GIST was higher when tumor had diameter > 5 cm or Ki-67 positivity. In addition, tumor bleeding, necrosis, and age ≥ 60 years were associated with poor overall survival. Endoscopic intervention can be considered as an effective method for initial hemostasis of hemorrhagic gastric GIST.

Postoperative anastomotic bleeding (PAB) is relatively rare; however, it can be lethal if not treated immediately. The aim of our study was to investigate the clinical features of PAB and the efficacy of endoscopic hemostasis (EH) for PAB. Between January 2004 and May 2013, 16,591 patients underwent gastrectomy for gastric cancer at Asan Medical Center. Among them, 36 patients who experienced PAB within 2 months after the gastrectomy were enrolled as a case group. Each subject was matched at a ratio of 1:5 with randomly selected patients without bleeding during the same period (n= 180, control group). The clinical outcomes and risk factors for patients with PAB were compared with those of the control group, and the results of EH were evaluated retrospectively. The incidence of PAB was 0.22% (n= 36), and the median duration from gastrectomy to PAB was 34.5 h (interquartile range, 12.3–132.8 h). EH was attempted in 25 patients (69.4%); surgery was performed in 6 patients (16.7%); and conservative management was applied in 5 patients (13.9%). PAB-related death occurred in three patients (8.3%; one in each treatment modality). Among 25 patients with primary EH, 16 were treated successfully (64%) and hemoclip was the most commonly used endoscopic tool (52%). In the multivariate analysis, the type of gastrectomy was found to be a risk factor for PAB (odds ratio 3.448, 95% confidence interval, 1.138–10.448, p= .029). Although PAB is an infrequent and potentially life-threatening complication, endoscopy can be considered as a useful method to avoid additional surgery in properly selected patients.

The incidence of metachronous lesions after endoscopic resection (ER) of high-grade dysplasia (HGD) has not been evaluated, and optimal surveillance strategy remains vague. This study aimed to evaluate the incidence and characteristics of metachronous tumors including HGD and early gastric cancer (EGC) arising after ER. The medical records of 2779 patients with 2981 lesions (445 patients with HGD and 2334 patients with EGC) who underwent ER and surveillance endoscopy at Asan Medical Center between April 1999 and December 2011 were retrospectively reviewed, and clinicopathological features of metachronous tumors were analyzed. Ninety-six metachronous lesions (17 HGD and 79 EGC) occurred in 92 patients during median 42 months of follow-up period (range 26–58 months). The 5-year and 10-year overall cumulative incidences of metachronous tumors were 4.6 and 10.5 %, respectively, and were on steady rise up to 10 years. The 5- and 10-year cumulative incidences of metachronous lesions were 4.1 and 8.4 % in HGD group and 4.7 and 11.3 % in EGC group (P= 0.578), respectively. The size of metachronous tumors was significantly smaller than initial lesion (2.3 vs. 1.9 cm, P= 0.039). Lower third of the stomach was most frequent site for both initial and metachronous lesions (77.1 and 70.8 %, respectively) and age was the significant predicting factor for metachronous tumors. Cumulative incidence of metachronous tumors after ER of HGD was comparable to the incidence after ER of EGC. Surveillance endoscopy can be considered at least for 10 years, with special attention on the lower third of the stomach.