The Requirements for Laparoscopy-Assisted Distal Gastrectomy to Become Standard Procedure for Gastric Cancer: Based on Qualitative Study of Surgeons' Experiences

Laparoscopy-assisted distal gastrectomy (LADG) has become one of the standard surgical procedures for gastric cancer in Japan and Korea. However, LADG is currently listed as being in the clinical research phase under the Gastric Cancer Treatment Guidelines. The aim of this study is to report surgeons’ opinions of what is needed if LADG is to become a standard procedure. We conducted questionnaire survey with open questions in hospitals that either applied or did not apply LADG and compared the answers. We labeled and categorized the collected data using content analysis. The number of hospitals which applied LADG more than doubled from 5 to 12 hospitals over 3 years. Overall, hospitals reported that the necessary elements for LADG to become a standard procedure are: clinical trials of LADG (n = 5, 22.7%), surgeons’ practical experience in performing LADG (n = 4, 18.2%), stability of radical treatment (n = 4, 18.2%), and a shorter operative duration (n = 3, 13.6%) for the procedure. Surgeons’ practical experience was chosen as the most important requirement in the hospitals which applied LADG while clinical trials (n = 2, 40.0%) and stability of radical treatment (n = 2, 40.0%) were the most common answers in the hospitals which did not apply LADG. Hospitals and surgeons’ practical experience, stabilizing radical cure, and the large scale of clinical trials are for LADG to become a standard procedure and to gain equivalent importance as open distal gastrectomy in treating gastric cancer.