Surgical manipulation related to the risk of postoperative complications in laparoscopic gastrectomy: A study protocol

Background: Few researches have reported the relationship between surgical skill and outcome on gastric cancer surgery. To prevent complication after gastrectomy, we need to identify specific manipulation or techniques that can increase the risk. In the present report, we attempt to identify techniques that directly cause intra-abdominal infectious complications (IAICs). Methods: This is a study protocol. We planned the multicenter case-control study, where the cases are patients who devel- oped IAICs and the controls were those who did not develop IAICs after gastrectomy. All of one-hundred patients diagnosed as clinical ≤T4a and ≤N1, and underwent distal gastrectomy are extracted. Two raters blinded to the outcome evaluate each video after editing to remove personal information from the operating videos. We then identified items with significant difference between the two groups for consideration of whether or not they were risk factors for IAIC.