In recent years, laparoscopy-assisted distal gastrectomy (LADG) has become widely used for the treatment of early gastric cancer. In our hospital, LADG has been performed in 53 patients since it was adopted in November 2006. In the present study, we compared 45 of these LADG patients with T1N0M0 stage IA early gastric cancer and 49 patients who underwent open distal gastrectomy (ODG) during the same period for cancer of the same stage. The compared outcomes included operative time, bleeding

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... , and number of lymph node dissections, which reflected the surgical outcomes, as well as the times to first water intake, oral intake, flatus, and bowel movement, and blood test results white blood cell (WBC), C-reactive protein (CRP), which reflected the postoperative course. The length of postoperative hospital stay and complications were also compared. There were no significant differences in operative time or number of lymph node dissections between the groups, although blood loss was significantly lesser with LADG (p < 0.05). There were no significant differences in postoperative course between the 2 groups. These findings suggest that LADG can be performed with the same level of safety as conventional ODG in cases of stage IA gastric cancer and that it may be recommended as the standard operative procedure in these patients.