Background: Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are the most common mesenchymal neoplasms of the gastrointestinal tract. Surgical resection with a free margin is the gold standard treatment for these lesions.
Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of performing laparoscopic resection for gastric GIST from the viewpoint of operative and long-term oncological outcomes.
Methods: Between 2005 and 2011, a total of 78 consecutive patients undergoing laparoscopic resection of gastric GISTs were enrolled in a retrospective single-center study. Patient and tumor characteristics, surgical procedures, risk classification, postoperative complications, mortality, recurrence, and survival time were collected from a database, and the descriptive statistics were estimated.
Results: Patients (N = 78; 32 males and 46 females) with a median age of 63 years (range 31-82) were evaluated. The tumors were located at the cardia (10.3%), upper stomach (59.0%), middle stomach (23.1), and lower stomach (7.7%). The mean size of the tumors was 34.7 ± 12.1 mm. The laparoscopic procedures included wedge resection (92.3%), such as laparoscopy and endoscopy cooperative surgery (51.3%), and gastrectomy (7.7%). All cases exhibited a pathologically negative margin. The mean operative time was 147.5 ± 63.8 min, and the mean estimated amount of blood loss was 17.8 ± 47.9 ml. The mean length of hospitalization was 9.4 ± 12.8 days. The incidence of perioperative complications higher than grade III was 2.6%, including two cases of anastomotic leakage. Regarding risk classification, low, intermediate and high were observed in 61, 6, and 11 cases, respectively. During a mean follow-up period of 45.3 ± 18.5 months, one patient experienced local recurrence in the omentum. Meanwhile, four patients died due to other diseases; all other patients survived.
Conclusions: Adequate oncologic resection was achieved in all cases. Laparoscopic surgery is a feasible option for gastric GISTs <5 cm.