[Effectiveness of between--hospital cooperation in staging laparoscopy].

INTRODUCTION: It is difficult to perform the staging of laparoscopy within the restricted time at a high-volume center. We thus started between-hospital cooperation as of April 2008. In this hospital cooperation, we perform surgery after laparoscopic examination at a cooperating hospital. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Staging laparoscopy was indicated for patients with T3 or T4 gastric cancer. These patients underwent staging laparoscopy at Maki Hospital before their scheduled surgery at our own hospital. RESULTS: Between April 2008 and January 2009, 14 patients underwent staging laparoscopy. We received the laparoscopic findings and confirmed the histopathological examination for median 11 days. The median duration from the day that we requested Maki Hospital to the day that patients underwent surgery was 34 days. No patient had laparoscopic complications. Of the 14 patients, 4 patients had peritoneal metastasis. Ten patients did not have peritoneal metastasis or positive cytology. Of these patients, 9 patients underwent surgery. R0 resection was achieved in 7 of 9 patients. False-negative results were obtained in two cases because of positive peritoneal cytology. CONCLUSION: Hospital cooperation may enable us to perform short-term staging laparoscopy. However, false-negative results were obtained in two cases because of positive peritoneal cytology. Further improvement must be made to assure the diagnostic accuracy of this procedure.