Estimation of Physiologic Ability and Surgical Stress Scoring System Appraises Laparoscopy-Assisted and Open Distal Gastrectomy in Treatment of Early Gastric Cancer

Laparoscopy-assisted distal gastrectomy (LADG) has been widely used to treat early gastric cancer (EGC). The Estimation of Physiologic Ability and Surgical Stress (E-PASS) scoring system predicts the risk of fatal postoperative complications by quantifying the patient’s reserve and degree of surgical stress, but there have been a few reports of use of the E-PASS scoring system to assess the risk of mortality following special types of surgical procedures such as LADG. In this study we assessed the feasibility of LADG versus open distal gastrectomy (ODG) by the E-PASS scoring system. The subjects of this study consisted of 69 stage IA gastric cancer patients who underwent LADG (LADG group) and 69 stage IA gastric cancer patients who underwent ODG (ODG group). The mean age of the patients in the LADG group was 68.6 years, which was significantly higher than the mean age of 63.4 years in the ODG group. There were no statistically significant differences between the groups in operation time or preoperative risk score, but there were statistically significant differences in blood loss, surgical stress score, comprehensive risk score, and duration of postoperative hospital stay. We conclude that using the E-PASS scoring system, LADG appreciates a more beneficial procedure for the treatment of EGC than ODG.