In 1994, Kitano and colleagues first reported laparoscopy-assisted Billroth I gastrectomy. Since then, laparoscopic gastrectomy (LG) has been associated with earlier patient recovery compared with open surgery, and has gained increasing international acceptance. Japan Society of Endoscopic Surgery biennial surveys confirm the increasing use of laparoscopic procedures for treatment of gastric cancer in Japan. Its thirteenth national survey indicates that of 31,264 patients treated at Japanese institutions in 2015, approximately 9,500 (30.3%) underwent LG, and laparoscopic distal gastrectomy (LDG) was the procedure most commonly performed. Despite evidence supporting the efficacy of LDG for gastric cancer in the short term, however, uncertainty remains concerning the efficacy of LG. Today, phase III randomized control trials on this procedure are ongoing in East Asian countries. Distal gastrectomy (DG) is the most commonly performed mode of resection, and as appropriate surgical techniques need to be acquired by gastric surgeons, here we describe a 'gold standard' method to perform total LDG.
Keywords: Billroth I reconstruction; Gastric cancer; distal gastrectomy (DG); intracorporeal anastomosis; laparoscopic gastrectomy (LG).