Surgical Treatment of Gastric Cancer in Albania

Results: M : F ratio was 2:1. The average age of all patients was 59.5 +/11.6 (18 – 90) years: in the age-group 51 – 70 years were 61.2% of all patients. The patients were divided in three groups according to the localization of the tumor: gastric cardia and fundus tumors were found in 105 (17%) patients, gastric corpus tumors were found in 279 (44.7%) patients and gastric antrum and pylorus tumors were found in 240 (38.3%) patients. The UICC/AJCC (TNM) classification was as follows: stage 1 were 49 (8%) patients; stage 2 were 174 (28%) patients; stage 3 were 213 (34%) patients and stage 4 were 188 (30%) patients. Overall operability index was 70%; 188 (30%) patients resulted inoperable at the time of intervention. In gastric cardia and fundus tumors, the most performed operation was total gastrectomy (70.5% of operable patients). In gastric corpus tumors, the most performed operation was distal gastrectomy (54%), followed by total gastrectomy (42% of operable patients). In gastric antrum and pylorus tumors, all operable patients (100%) were treated with distal gastrectomy. In the histopatologic aspect, most of the tumors were adenocarcinoma (74.7%). Overall postoperative morbidity and mortality were respectively 26.8% and 1.8%. The most common postoperative complications were cardiopulmonary complications in 44 (7%) patients and wound infection in 37 (6%) patients