Laparoscopic intraluminal (intragastric) surgery for early gastric cancer. A new concept in laparoscopic surgery.

A new laparoscopic operation for the treatment of mucosal or submucosal gastric lesions has been designed and performed on eight patients. In this procedure, all three trocars are placed in the gastric lumen, penetrating both the abdominal and stomach walls in order to perform a laparoscopic removal of gastric lesions. The operation is then carried out in the gastric lumen with currently available laparoscopic instruments and laparoscopic monitoring. The procedure is easy, safe, and feasible for mucosal or submucosal lesions of the stomach which cannot be treated by gastrofiberscopic technique. In this series, 6 patients with early gastric cancer, 1 with a submucosal leiomyoma, and 1 with giant polyp of the stomach were treated without complications. Since this technique is based on a new concept in laparoscopic surgery, the author has named this intraluminal operation "laparoscopic intragastric surgery."