Some scholars advocated total gastrectomy for Siewert Ⅱ AEG. Reason 1: the intolerable gastroesophageal reflux may occur with high probability in esophageal gastric-remnant anastomosis after proximal gastrectomy. In the study of Nakamura M, the incidence of reflux esophagitis above grade B in the traditional esophageal gastric-remnant anastomosis group was 21.8% (12/55) [6], and the incidence was 35.3% according to the study of Chen S (12/34) [13]. Some patients needed to take acid suppressive drugs for a long time, which seriously affected the quality of life. Bile and food repeatedly stimulated the anastomosis to develop anastomotic inflammation, and further caused gastric stump cancer. Reason 2: most AEG were more malignant than other gastric cancer in biological behavior [14]. In order to achieve better radical treatment of tumor and reduce recurrence, total gastrectomy was needed.
Currently a number of researches showed that there was no advantage in the postoperative survival rate for Siewert Ⅱ AEG cases with active total gastrectomy and lymph node dissection. Recently, Yura [15] research of 202 cases revealed that the metastasis rate of NO.4d was 0.99%, NO.12a was 0.006%, NO.5 and NO.6 was 0% in T2-3 AEG. Kaixuan Zhu [16]et al. analyzed SEER database, 1584 cases were treated with proximal gastrectomy, 633 cases were treated with total gastrectomy, there was no difference in 5-year OS, and proximal gastrectomy brought more long-term survival benefits when the age was over 70 years. In this study, most of the cases were in the middle stage, including 14 cases with Ⅲ stage A, who were followed up for 24 months, and 3 cases died of tumor recurrence. We hold that it should be cautious about the proximal gastrectomy for patients with stage Ⅲ.
A disadvantage of total gastrectomy is the possibility of poor nutritional status, anemia and dumping syndrome after operation [17–18]. Due to the complete removal of gastric parietal cells, the secretion of intrinsic factors is incapable, vitamin B12 absorption is poor, which results in megaloblastic anemia. With the removal of principal cells, digestive enzymes of the stomach are lost, the nutrition-related complications aggravate further. Study of Nishigori1[19] showed that the weight loss of proximal gastrectomy was significantly less than that of total gastrectomy, and the gastrointestinal symptoms of proximal gastrectomy were also less than those of total gastrectomy. Study of Lee[8] showed that the nutritional serological indexes (albumin, total protein, hemoglobin) of proximal gastrectomy were significantly better than those of total gastrectomy two years after operation.
Physiological anti-reflux mechanism: 1.The lower esophageal sphincter (LES) is a high pressure zone under the normal condition, which forms a pressure barrier and blocks reflux. 2. The traction effect of phrenic esophageal ligament 3.The angle formed between the right posterior wall of the gastric fundus and the left side of the abdominal segment of the esophagus (His angle) is an acute angle. When the pressure in the gastric cavity increases, the expanded gastric fundus compresses the left side of the lower segment of the esophagus and makes it closed [20–21]. The proximal gastrectomy can destroy the structure above, additionally, due to the removal of the vagus nerve, the remnant stomach loses the regulation of the vagus nerve and the ability of gastric peristalsis weakens, pylorus continues to contract, which inhibits gastric emptying, and increases the probability of gastroesophageal reflux.
We were inspired by the mitral valve and tricuspid valve of the heart. When the arterial pressure is high, the blood compresses the valve root to close the opening and prevent the blood from flowing back. Why can't a valve be made manually at the junction of the esophageal and remnant stomach by surgery?
In this operation, a 45 ° oblique cutting was made with linear cutting closer at first, after cutting, the slope edge of the row of nails formed the initial valve. The reversed puncture opening was left in the lower right corner. When anastomosed the anastomat rod and the nail base, aligned the nail base vertically, and the anastomosis was oblique on the right side of the simulated valve. The operator grasped the remnant stomach and pushed it to the upper left, which made the left lower segment of the esophagus and the starting section of valve embedded deeply, and a new His angle was constructed between the left posterior wall of remnant stomach and esophagus. When food was fed through mouth, the simulated valve opened. When the pressure in the remnant stomach cavity increased and the reflux occurred, squeezed the valve root on the left side and the valve was closed. The difference was not statistically significant in GerdQ score after operation compared with that before operation in 28 patients, which preliminarily confirmed the anti-reflux effect of the new anastomotic method, but one patient scored 12 points. After operation, only one case of reflux esophagitis above grade B was confirmed by gastrofiberscope. It was a low incidence of 3.57% (1/28).
According to the principle, we divided the anti-reflux operational methods after proximal gastrectomy into two categories:
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1. Method of changing the physiological digestive tract pathway: single lumen jejunum interposition, pouch interposition jejunum, double-tract reconstruction.
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2. Method of the improvement of traditional esophageal gastric-remnant anastomosis: esophagogastric anterior wall anastomosis, double flap (Kamikawa) anastomosis, anastomosis of gastroesophageal side overlap and tubular gastric anastomosis.
Jejunal interposition is to insert a segment of pedicled jejunum between the esophagus and the remnant stomach. The rhythmic peristalsis of jejunum and the alkaline solution neutralize the residual gastric acid, therefore, plays a role in anti-reflux. We think jejunal interposition has some shortcomings. Firstly, the operation is complex, which needs a long operation time, and it forms three anastomosises, and has the potential incidence of anastomotic complications. The principle of Kamikawa anastomosis is similar to that of ours, which aims to form the embedded valve and construct His angle. In 33 cases of Kamikawa anastomosis reported by Kuroda[10], the number of reflux esophagitis above grade B was 0, while the average time of anastomosis reconstruction was 109 min in one year follow-up, without grade B record. We hold that Kamikawa anastomosis needs the cut of sarcoplasmic layer of "H" type at first, and insert the anastomosis into the submucous layer by hand, and then fold and cover the two layers of gastric muscle flap. The procedure of anastomosis is also complicated. If the valve overlapped too much, it is likely to cause ischemic necrosis of valve or anastomotic stenosis. Yoshito Yamashita[22] et al. reported an anti-reflux method of the anastomosis of esophageal remnant stomach side overlap via the linear cutting closer under complete laparoscopy. We believe that this method needs to reserve a long segment of lower esophageal, which can not guarantee the upper edge R0 resection of Siewert II AEG with dentate line invasion.
There was only one anastomosis in this anastomotic method. The final anastomosis was a circular anastomat one under direct vision, which required less length of the reserved lower esophageal segment and it was safer. There was no anastomotic leakage in total 28 cases. The principle of our anastomotic method is to make a one-way valve at the junction of esophageal and remnant stomach, which does not affect the circular anastomat anastomosis, therefore, we can also combine other anti-reflux surgical methods freely, such as the esophageal and gastric forearm anastomosis, tubular gastric anastomosis, to achieve a "double-guaranteed" anti-reflux effect.
Three united laparoscopic surgery was invented by us. Through patented instrument, single-port laparoscopy, complete laparoscopy and hand-assisted laparoscopy switched freely in the operation[12]. In the initial stage, complete laparoscopic surgery was used to free the stomach, and dissected the lymph nodes. Switched to hand-assisted laparoscopic surgery when anastomosing. The exposure and traction effects by hand assistance made it more convenient to place the nail base. In this study, the average time of making valve and anastomotic reconstruction was only 35.4 min, which greatly shortened the total operation time. Taking samples, anastomosis and hand assistance were all operated through the incision of patented instrument placement, which made the reasonable use of the auxiliary incision.
There are some shortcomings in this method. If the valve is too large, anastomotic stenosis may be caused due to the circular anastomat. There may be subjective bias of patients in GerdQ score in this retrospective analysis, which requires more objective impedance-24 h acid test and other experiments, On the other hand, there were fewer cases in this study, which may affect the statistical results.