Reconstruction methods and complications in proximal gastrectomy for gastric cancer, and a comparison with total gastrectomy.

Proximal gastrectomy (PG) is a widely accepted, efficient treatment for upper-third early gastric cancer. However, it is associated with reduced quality of life (QOL) following surgery, and cancer recurrence in the remaining stomach. Various reconstruction methods have been proposed, but the optimal method has yet to be determined. We investigated the clinicopathological characteristics, reconstruction methods, and postoperative complications in 101 cases of PG, and additionally compared 93 cases of early gastric cancer treated by PG, and 38 cases treated by total gastrectomy (TG). We found that esophagogastrostomy was superior in terms of operation time, intraoperative blood loss, and postoperative hospital stay, while no significant differences were observed in postoperative complications compared with jejunal interposition or jejunal pouch interposition. We found more cases of multiple gastric cancers and advanced-stage cancer in the TG group than in the PG group. The TG group also had a significantly higher proportion of cases with large tumor diameters, low degrees of differentiation, many lymph node metastases, and advanced-stage disease. There were no differences in the recurrence rate or survival rate between the PG and TG groups. The PG group also showed significantly better results in operating time, intraoperative blood loss, and postoperative complications, with a tendency toward shorter hospital stays. In conclusion, PG is a curative but less invasive treatment for upper-third early gastric cancer, and esophagogastrostomy can be considered the most satisfactory reconstruction method following PG.