Effect of Peritoneal Lavage on Surgery-induced Positive Peritoneal Cytology in Gastric Cancer Patients

Peritoneal dissemination of gastric adenocarcinoma cells is the most frequent cause of death in patients with gastric cancer. Spreading of these cells occur by three routes: direct seeding via infiltration through gastric wall, via blood vessels and via perigastric lymphatic channels disturbed during lymph node dissection. Conversion of negative preoperative peritoneal cytology to positive cytology after curative gastrectomy has been shown by previous studies.

Although extensive intra-operative peritoneal lavage (1 L of physiologic saline 10 times) has been shown to be an effective method to eliminate cancer cell dissemination during surgery, to cause significant improvement in survival after gastrectomy, widespread use of this approach has not existed most probably due to its time consuming technical difficulty. Therefore,intra-operative peritoneal lavage (1 L of physiologic saline 3 times) may be used more frequently during gastric surgery.If it is possible to show effectivity of intra-operative peritoneal lavage using a total of 3 L physiologic saline to eliminate cancer cell dissemination occurred before or after gastric surgery, use of this approach may gain acceptance to decrease risk of peritoneal metastasis.