OBJECTIVETo summarize the experience of lymph node dissection patterns in hand-assisted laparoscopic radical gastrectomy.

METHODSOne hundred and eleven patients with gastric carcinoma between December 2010 and September 2012 were operated by hand-assisted laparoscopic system designed by us. Clinical data were analyzed retrospectively. The lymph nodes were dissected from left to right together with total tumor resection(reverse lymph nodes scavenge pattern), then digestive tract was reconstructed.

RESULTSTotal gastrectomy, distal gastrectomy and proximal gastrectomy were performed in 57, 46 and 8 cases respectively. Combined cholecystectomy and lateral segment of left liver lobe were needed in 4 and 2 patients respectively, and 1 case underwent combined splenectomy and pancreatic body and tail resection. TNM staging of patients in I(, II(, III(A, III(B, and IIII( were 16, 8, 35, 14, and 38, respectively. Histological type was poorly differentiated in 78 cases, moderate differentiation in 26 cases and good differentiation in 7 cases. The incision length was(6.8±0.3) cm, blood loss was(238.4±113.6) ml, operative time was (171.9±23.3) min, number of removed lymph node was 17.2±5.7, hospital stay was (10.1±3.7) d, postoperative complication rate was 9.0%. One case died during perioperative time.

CONCLUSIONSHand-assisted laparoscopic D2 radical gastrectomy(reverse lymph nodes scavenge pattern) can avoid the multiple conversion of open-laparoscopic operation model, and is beneficial to the standardization for surgical procedure.