Background: Laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy requires a lot of disposable products. So we compared the cost between laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy and open surgery.Patients and methods: For comparison we used five cases each of open distal gastrectomy (ODG), laparoscopy-assisted distal gastrectomy (LADG), open total gastrectomy (OTG) and laparoscopy assisted total gastrectomy (LATG). In this study, we defined the profit of gastrectomy as below and we used the list price for all products. Profit of gastrectomy=Fee for gastrectomy-(Costs of all single use products-Demandable fee for single-use products)Results: Mean profits of ODG and LADG were 278,756.2 yen and 190,292.8 yen. The difference was 88,463.4 yen. Mean profits of OTG and LATG were 395,922.6 yen and 330,653.6 yen. The difference was 65,269 yen. Mean hospital charges, mean length of hospital stay, mean hospital charges per day of ODG, LADG, OTG and LATG were 1,390,464 yen, 21.4 days, 65,140.0 yen and 1,484,254.0 yen, 18.8 days, 80,805.4 yen and 1,956,664.0 yen, 24.4 days, 82,397.1 yen and 1,686,936.0 yen, 18.4 days, 91,894.8 yen, respectively.Conclusion: The turnover of laparoscopic gastrectomy was higher than open gastrectomy, but, the profit was lower because of high costs of disposable products. Hospital charges were not higher but the charge per day was higher because of a shorter hospital stay.
Gastrectomy ; Laparoscopy ; Hospitals ; Mean ; Financial cost

Objectives: Few studies examined the association between deterioration of masticatory ability assessed by objective marker and physical function. Therefore, we examined the association between salivary flow rate which is one of the objective and surrogate marker of masticatory ability and lower Timed Up & Go (TUG) performance which is one of major measurement of physical function among aging Japanese. Methods: This cross-sectional study enrolled 464 Japanese aged 60e84 years old. Participants chewed tasteless and odorless gum for 5 min, calculated stimulated salivary flow rate (g/min) during all chews.The 3 m TUG was conducted, and 75th percentile value (6.8 s for men and 7.0 s for women) or higher was defined as lower TUG performance. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association between stimulated salivary flow rate and lower TUG performance. Results: We found that the stimulated salivary flow rate tended to be negatively associated with the TUG time. We also observed significant negative association between stimulated salivary flow rate and lower TUG performance; the multivariable-adjusted OR (95% confidence interval, CIs) of lower TUG performance for the highest quartile of stimulated salivary flow rate compared with the lowest quartile was0.34 (0.16e0.69, P for trend ¼ 0.02). Further adjusting for BMI, the association was attenuated but remaind significant; the OR (95% CIs) in highest quartile was 0.37 (0.18e0.76, P for trend ¼ 0.04). Conclusions Higher stimulated salivary flow, which means well masticatory ability, was inversely associated with lower TUG performance in the aging Japanese population.