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We report a successful case of gastric cancer with esophageal hiatal hernia treated by laparoscopic surgery. The patient was a 75-year-old woman who was referred to our hospital with a diagnosis of early gastric cancer with esophageal hiatal hernia. Laparoscopic distal gastrectomy with lymph node dissection and esophageal hiatal hernia repair using primary suture method without mesh were performed simultaneously. She had a good postoperative course without the recurrence of both cancer and hernia.

Background: Laparoscopic surgery is becoming the preferred technique for most colorectal interventions. This study aimed to clarify the time trend of surgical treatment for familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) and its relevance to clinical outcomes in Japan over a 13-year period., Methods: This was a multicenter retrospective cohort study comprising 23 specialist institutions for colorectal disease and a cohort of 282 FAP patients who underwent total colectomy or proctocolectomy during 2000-2012. Patient clinical backgrounds and surgical outcomes were compared between the first and second halves of the study period., Results: The proportion of surgical types adopted over the entire study period was 46, 21, 30, and 3 % for ileoanal anastomosis (IAA), ileoanal canal anastomosis, ileorectal anastomosis, and permanent ileostomy, respectively. FAP patients undergoing laparoscopic surgery have increased since 2008 and reached 74 % in the past 3 years. In particular, the number of patients undergoing laparoscopic proctocolectomy with IAA increased approximately four-fold from the first to the second half of the study period. A laparoscopic approach was increasingly used in patients with coexisting colorectal malignancies. Despite this trend, surgical results of the laparoscopic approach between the two study periods showed similar morbidity, pouch operation and stoma closure completion rates. No postoperative mortality was observed in this series, and laparoscopic surgery was comparable to open surgery in terms of stoma closure rate, incidence of intra-abdominal/abdominal desmoid tumors, and postoperative survival rate in both study periods., Conclusion: Laparoscopic approach is increasingly being adopted for prophylactic FAP surgery in Japan and may provide clinically acceptable practical outcomes.

Background: This observational study was conducted to compare the rate of symptomatic anastomotic leakage (AL), as defined by precise criteria, between laparoscopic and open surgery in patients with mid-to-low rectal cancer using a relatively novel statistical technique., Methods: A total of 1014 consecutive low anterior resection (LAR) patients were registered, of whom 936 were included in this prospective, multicenter, and cohort study (UMIN-CTR, Number 000004017). Patients with rectal cancer within 10 cm from the anal verge underwent either open or laparoscopic LAR at one of the 40 institutions in Japan from June 2010 to February 2013. The primary endpoint of this study was to compare the rate of symptomatic AL between the two groups before and after propensity score matching (PSM). The secondary endpoint was to analyze the risk factors for symptomatic AL in open and laparoscopic surgery., Results: After PSM, the incidence of symptomatic AL in open and laparoscopic surgery was 12.4 and 15.3 %, respectively (p = 0.48). AL requiring relaparotomy occurred after 3.8 % of open surgeries and 6.2 % of laparoscopic surgeries (p = 0.37). Multivariate analysis identified male gender as an independent risk factor for symptomatic AL following laparoscopic surgery (p = 0.001; odds ratio 5.2; 95 % CI 2.0-13.8), and male gender (p = 0.004; odds ratio 2.6; 95 % CI 1.3-5.6), tumor size (p = 0.002; odds ratio 1.2; 95 % CI 0.7-0.9), and number of stapler firing (p = 0.04; odds ratio 4.1; 95 % CI 1.0-15.0) following open surgery., Conclusion: The rate of symptomatic AL was comparable following laparoscopic and open LAR in this large, multicenter, cohort study after PSM. Male gender was associated with an increased risk of symptomatic AL after laparoscopic LAR.

A 69-year-old woman with chronic hepatitis B and esophageal varices was admitted to our hospital because of a hepatocellular carcinoma( HCC) measuring 3 cm in segment S3. Computed tomography( CT) scan revealed splenomegaly, and the platelet count was 6.0×104/μL. Partial hepatectomy and splenectomy were performed sequentially under laparoscopic guidance in a right half-lateral decubitus position, using 7 working ports. The operation time was 237 min, and the amount of bleeding was 26 mL. Her postoperative course was uneventful, and she was discharged on the 10th day after the operation.

Background/aims: We performed staging laparoscopy (SL) for advanced gastric cancer with suspicion of positive peritoneal cytology (CY) or peritoneal metastasis (P). This study was designed to show SL's utility in advanced gastric cancer., Methodology: This was a retrospective study of 124 patients with primary gastric cancer who underwent SL between October 2001 and March 2009., Results: There were no perioperative complications without a case of bleeding. The patient breakdown was P0CY0, 67; P0CY1, 19; P1CY0, 6; and P1CY1, 32. Chemotherapy was administered as the initial treatment in 33 patients and the period from SL to chemotherapy was 19.5 days. In 7 patients undergoing laparotomy as the initial treatment but later requiring exploratory laparotomy or palliative surgery followed by chemotherapy, the period from laparotomy to chemotherapy was 36.8 days. The difference was significant (p<0.0001). P1 was confirmed in 10 (14.5%) of 69 patients undergoing laparotomy as the initial treatment. CY was re-examined in 53 of these 69 patients and CY1 was confirmed in 6 (13.3%) of 45 patients who were CY0 according to SL., Conclusion: With SL, early initiation of chemotherapy was possible for P1 patients. Although improved accuracy is required, SL, which can be carried out safely with minimal invasiveness, was suggested to be useful.