Published online Mar 26, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i6.1074
Peer-review started: December 29, 2019
First decision: January 19, 2020
Revised: February 14, 2020
Accepted: February 28, 2020
Article in press: February 28, 2020
Published online: March 26, 2020
There is still controversy as to whether laparoscopic surgery leads to a poor prognosis compared to the open approach for early gallbladder carcinoma (GBC).
The safety and feasibility of laparoscopic surgery compared with open surgery for early GBC are controversial.
To compare the currently available results of laparoscopic surgery compared with open surgery to confirm which is better for early GBC.
We systematically reviewed the literature on laparoscopic surgery and open surgery, and included relevant studies for meta-analysis.
The results indicated no significant differences in the 1-, 3-, and 5-year overall survival, operation time, intraoperative blood loss, the number of lymph nodes resected, and postoperative complications between the laparoscopic and open surgery groups. However, patients who underwent laparoscopic surgery had a reduced length of hospital stay than those who underwent open surgery.
Laparoscopic surgery is a safe and feasible alternative to open surgery with comparable 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival and operation-related outcomes in early GBC.
More prospective studies should be performed due to the limited sample size and lack of recurrence data in this study.