Abstract

Introduction: Gastric carcinoid is a very low frequency tumor. A proportion of them require surgery to control the disease. The ideal surgical treatment is controversial. Aim: To describe the perioperative and follow-up course of patients with gastric carcinoid subjected to laparoscopic gastrectomy. Materials and Methods: Retrospective study of patients undergoing some type of laparoscopic gastrectomy for gastric carcinoid the last 10 years. We collected demographic background, preoperative evaluation, type of surgery, complications and follow-up. Results: During the study period were operated 7 patients, 5 were men. The average age was 54 years. In three patients the diagnosis was a finding, while the rest had abdominal pain associated with nonspecific symptoms. Four patients had a type I gastric carcinoid associated with chronic gastritis and hypergastrinemia, and the others had a type III gastric carcinoid. Six patients underwent laparoscopic total gastrectomy while in the remaining patient (type III) was subtotal. There were no postoperative complications. During follow-up one patient required a reoperation for mechanical ileus secondary to adhesions and one patient required endoscopic dilatation because esophagoyeyunostomy stenosis. At 32 months of median follow-up (1-52) no patient has relapsed. Conclusion: Laparoscopic gastrectomy is an alternative in the surgical treatment of patients with gastric carcinoid. It's safe and represent adequate oncological results in the short and medium term.