INTRODUCTION: Early gastric cancer limits the mucosa or submucosa of the gastric wall, regardless of metastases. Despite the high prevalence, gastric cancer is diagnosed in advanced stage, since in most cases the earliness is silent. Thus, is identified such cancer at first using a diagnostic test performed for other reasons. Nowadays, minimally invasive surgery by laparoscopy has usually been presented as a solution to decrease the incidence of postoperative complications and to improve the quality of postoperative recovery. AIM: To assess the evidence related to the advantages and disadvantages inherent in the use of laparoscopy-assisted partial gastrectomy for the treatment of early gastric cancer. METHOD: The headings used were: cancer; stomach; laparoscopic surgery in PubMed (www.pubmed.com), in Bireme (www.bireme.br) and in Cochrane VHL (http://cochrane.bvsalud.org). Afterwards, the relevant articles for laparoscopic-assisted surgery to treat early gastric cancer were selected. CONCLUSION: Laparoscopy to treat early gastric cancer was proved beneficial, even when used in part during surgery and can reduce complications related to partial gastrectomy.
Cancer; Stomach; Laparoscopic surgery
