Intracorporeal Versus Extracorporeal Anastomosis in Laparoscopic Right Colectomy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

AIM: To compare intracorporeal anastomosis (IA) and extracorporeal anastomosis (EA) in laparoscopic right colectomy (LRC) in terms of intraoperative and postoperative outcomes. METHODS: A systematic literature search with no limits was performed in PubMed and Embase. The last search was performed on April 9, 2016. The outcomes of interests included intraoperative outcomes (operative time, blood loss, length of incision, conversion, lymph nodes harvested, and intraoperative complications) and postoperative outcomes (time to first flatus, time to first defecation, time to liquid diet, length of hospital stay, postoperative complications, mortality, ileus, anastomotic leakage, anastomotic bleeding, wound infection, hernia, and intra-abdominal abscess). RESULTS: Fifteen articles and four conference abstracts published between 2004 and 2016 with a total of 1957 patients were enrolled in this meta-analysis. IA was associated with significant less blood loss, smaller length of incision, shorter time to first defecation, shorter time to liquid diet, and shorter length of hospital stay. No differences were found for operative time, conversion, lymph nodes harvested, intraoperative complications, time to first flatus, postoperative complications, mortality, anastomotic leakage, anastomotic bleeding, ileus, wound infection, intra-abdominal abscess, or hernia between IA and EA. CONCLUSION: Our meta-analysis suggests that the IA for LRC improves cosmesis and results in better postoperative recovery outcomes without increasing intraoperative and postoperative complications. Furthermore, a large randomized control study is warranted to compare the short-term and long-term outcomes of those two anastomosis techniques.