Relaparotomy Following a Resection for Gastric Cancer

Chae, Gi Bong; Mok, Young Jae; Song, Tae Jin; Lee, Jae Bok; Kim, Seoung Ju; Choi, Sang Yong; Moon, Hong Yong; Koo, Bum Hwan; Kim, Sae Min; Kim, Chong Suk

Abstract

BACKGROUND: There has been a general feeling among surgeons that recurrence or metastasis following a curative gastric resection is a hopeless surgical proposition. This study was conducted to evaluate the clinical features and significance of relaparotomy following a gastrectomy for gastric cancer.
METHODS
Fifty-six cases of relaparotomies following resection for 53 gastric cancer patients, which were performed over a nine-year period, were investigated retrospectively. On preoperative diagnosis, there were 17 cases of remnant and anastomotic recurrence, 15 cases of intestinal obstruction, 7 cases of cholecystitis, 7 cases of rectosigmoid obstruction, 5 cases of E-loop obstruction and 5 cases of other diseases.
RESULTS
Of all the laparotomies eleven cases (19%) were non-recurrence, benign diseases and forty-six (81%) were recurrence. In the 17 cases of remnant and anastomotic recurrence, re-resection was possible in 13 (76%) and major postoperative complications developed in 4 cases with 2 cases of death within one month. Also 6 of 7 re-resected cases which was stage I at first operation were still alive well. In 15 cases of mechanical obstruction, 5 cases were non-recurrence and 10 cases involved recurrence, of which 6 had a bypass or enterostomy and 4 an exploration only. All cholecystitis cases had a cholecystectomy; metastasis was found in 2 cases. Rectal obstruction and E-loop obstruction all involved recurrence and a palliative resection was possible in only one case of each type of obstruction.
CONCLUSIONS
In a relaparotomy of remnant and anastomotic recurrence, most of the survival-improving re-resection cases were in stage I at the first operation. In late-onset cholecystitis tumor recurrence should be suspected and a relaparotomy of the malignant obstruction, with bypass and ostomy procedure, can be justified for symptomatic relief.