OBJECTIVETo study the clinical value of radical resection of gastric carcinoma with pancreas and spleen preservation (PSP) and functional cleaning of lymph nodes (LNs) of the spleen hillus and along the splenic artery.

METHODSPancreas and spleen involvement was retrospectively reviewed among 439 cases of resectable carcinoma of the gastric cardia, gastric corpus and total stomach. During gastric surgery, 2 ml of methylene blue was injected into the subserosal space of the gastric cardia or corpus to observe the spread of lymphatic flow in 54 cases of gastric carcinoma. The metastatic rate of LNs in splenic hillus and along the trunk of the splenic artery (No10, No11), postoperative complications and survival rates were investigated in 63 gastric carcinoma patients that had received gastrectomy with pancreas and spleen preservation (PSP). These were compared with the pancreas preservation (PP) group and pancreas and spleen combined resection (PSR) group.

RESULTSAmong these 439 cases, only 25 cases were observed with direct invasion to the pancreas (5.7%), and 10 cases with direct invasion to the spleen (2.3%). After pathological examination of the pancreatic body and tail, we found 22 cases with pancreas and spleen combined resection, 4 cases (18.2%, 4/22) with direct invasion of the capsule and 2 with invasion to the superficial parenchyma (9.1%, 2/22), without metastasis to the lymph nodes within the pancreas and spleen. The metastatic rate of No10, No11 lymph nodes were 17.5% (11/63) and 19.1% (12/63) in the PSP group, 20.8% (45/216) and 25% (54/216) in the PP group, and 20% (6/30) and 23.3% (7/30) in the PSR group. There were no statistically significant differences (P > 0.05). Injection of methylene blue into the subserosal space of the stomach did not diffuse into the spleen or pancreatic parenchyma. Postoperative complications, diabetes and mortality in PSP (0%, 0%, 0%) were lower than in PP (4.2%, 0.9%, 0.9%) or PSR (40%, 10%, 3.3%). The 5-year survival rate (5-YSR) and 10-YSR in PSP (57.5%, 52.0%) were higher than in PSR (37.5%, 30.0%). Those patients with stage II and III(a) treated by PSP, improved markedly.

CONCLUSIONSThe surgical procedure of pancreas and spleen preservation for gastric cancer is a safe and organ function protected method. Postoperative complications were lower and survival rates were higher, the radicality was not reduced. These results indicate that PSP is preferred in patients with gastric carcinoma of stage II or III(a).