People diagnosed with gastric tumor require surgery to remove the stomach. The previous standard is open gastrectomy. In recent years, minimally invasive surgery ("small incision surgery" or "keyhole surgery") has developed rapidly and is already replacing open surgery as the standard therapy for many general surgical operations.
In gastric cancer, too, some studies show that the minimally invasive approach potentially reduces complication rates with equivalent chances of cure. The goal of this study is to show a reduction in severe complications and postoperative pain, better mobilization, faster rehabilitation, and shorter hospital stay after minimally invasive gastrectomy compared with open gastrectomy. For this reason, the Comprehensive Complication Index (CCI), based on the Clavien-Dindo classification, was chosen as the primary endpoint because this well-established index encompasses all possible complications and thus also reflects the patient's assessment better than other indices.
Through this study, surgeons will be better able to educate patients about the benefits and risks of surgery using high-quality data, as well as improve the surgical management of gastric cancer through low complication and faster rehabilitation of patients. This would be associated with a shorter hospital stay, which in turn would reduce the burden on the healthcare system.
