Safety and efficiency of endoscopic resection versus laparoscopic resection in gastric gastrointestinal stromal tumours: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The application of endoscopic resection (ER) in gastric gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GIST) is controversial. We carried out a meta-analysis to compare the safety and efficiency of ER with laparoscopic resection (LR) in patients with gastric GISTs. We searched PubMed to identify studies comparing ER with LR in GIST. The outcomes focused on two areas: safety, including operation time, blood loss, length of hospital stay, time to flatus, time to liquid, time to soft diet, and postoperative complications; and efficiency, including positive margin, recurrence, and long-term survival. A total of 1292 patients from 12 studies were included in the meta-analysis. Patients undergoing ER had a shorter operation time (standardised mean difference [SMD] −1.48, 95% confidence interval [CI] −2.18 to −0.78) and shorter time to soft diet (SMD -1.02, 95% CI -1.52 to −0.52) than those undergoing LR. No significant differences were observed between the groups in terms of blood loss, length of hospital stay, time to flatus, time to liquid, and postoperative complications. ER was also associated with greater positive margins compared with LR (relative risk 6.32, 95% CI 1.41–28.26). There were no significant differences between ER and LR for recurrence and 5-year disease-free survival. The limited evidence suggests that ER is a more effective strategy for improving postoperative recovery without increasing the risk of surgery and recurrence in gastric GIST. However, close attention should be paid to margin status after ER.