Effect of gastrectomy with bursectomy on prognosis of gastric cancer: a meta-analysis.

Aim: To evaluate the effect of bursectomy on overall survival, recurrence-free survival and safety of patients with gastric cancer by performing a meta-analysis.

Methods: A literature search was performed in PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library databases for clinical research that compared bursectomy with non-bursectomy published before October 2013. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were established and applied. Overall survival, recurrence-free survival, complications, hospital stay, operative time and blood loss were compared using hazard ratios (HRs), relative risks and weighted mean differences. Stata 12.0 software was used for statistical analysis.

Results: Four studies including 1130 patients were available for the analysis (430 in the bursectomy group, 700 in the non-bursectomy group). No statistically significant difference was observed in the rate of complications between the bursectomy group and the non-bursectomy group. Bursectomy did not have a significant effect (combined HR = 1.14, 95%CI: 0.88-1.47) on overall survival, and it was not a significant factor for recurrence-free survival (combined HR = 1.06, 95%CI: 0.82-1.37).

Conclusion: Gastrectomy with bursectomy is not superior to non-bursectomy in terms of survival. Bursectomy is not recommended as a routine procedure for the surgical treatment of gastric cancer.