Anatomy and influence of the splenic artery in laparoscopic spleen-preserving splenic lymphadenectomy

Table 1 Vascular anatomy of the splenic hilum in the 2 groups

	Terminal branches of the SpA		P value
	Concentrated type	Distributed type
Type of SpA			0.001
Single branch SpA	22	0
2-branched SpA	157	93
3-branched SpA	26	17
Multiple-branched SpA	0	2
SpA along the pancrease			0.561
Type I	61	26
Type II	133	78
Type III	7	6
Type IV	4	2
SUPA	27	23	0.085
SLPA	13	3	0.154
No. of SGAs	3.60 ± 1.05	3.63 ± 1.17	0.821

SUPA: Splenic upper pole artery; SLPA: Splenic lower pole artery; SGA: Short gastric artery.

Table 2 Comparison of clinicopathological characteristics between the 2 groups

Patient characteristics	Terminal branches of the SpA		P value
	Concentrated type	Distributed type
No. of patients	205	112
Sex			0.617
Male	156	88
Female	49	24
Age (yr)	60.79 ± 10.30	60.79 ± 10.77	1.000
BMI (kg/m2)	22.16 ± 2.62	21.68 ± 2.72	0.122
Tumor size (cm)	5.40 ± 2.75	5.83 ± 2.63	0.178
Histological			0.072
Differentiated	115	51
Undifferentiated	90	61
Depth of invasion			0.501
pT1	22	9
pT2	24	16
pT3	84	39
pT4a	75	48
Lymph node metastasis			0.978
pN0	52	29
pN1	35	21
pN2	39	21
pN3	79	41
TNM stage			0.584
I	30	12
II	51	31
III	124	69

Table 3 Comparison of intraoperative characteristics between the 2 groups

Intraoperative characteristics	Terminal branches of the SpA		P value
	Concentrated type	Distributed type
Operation time (min)	175.35 ± 32.95	175.53 ± 30.24	0.963
Operation time at splenic hilum (min)	23.15 ± 8.02	26.21 ± 8.84	0.002
Blood loss (mL)	53.76 ± 33.09	54.29 ± 29.33	0.887
Blood loss at splenic hilum (mL)	14.78 ± 11.09	17.37 ± 10.62	0.044
No. of positive LNs	7.36 ± 9.04	8.22 ± 10.04	0.433
No. of retrieved LNs	40.36 ± 14.08	44.46 ± 14.80	0.015
No. of positive No. 10 LNs	0.23 ± 0.81	0.11 ± 0.53	0.152
No. of retrieved No. 10 LNs	2.54 ± 2.18	2.96 ± 2.11	0.103
No. of vascular clamps at splenic hilum	9.64 ± 2.88	10.40 ± 3.57	0.040

LNs: Lymph nodes.

Table 4 Comparison of postoperative characteristics between the 2 groups

Postoperative characteristics	Terminal branches of the SpA		P value
	Concentrated type	Distributed type
Postoperative hospital stay (d)	12.99 ± 7.94	11.54 ± 4.30	0.075
Day of first flatus (d)	4.17 ± 1.06	4.10 ± 0.97	0.578
Day of first fluid diet (d) Day of first semifluid diet (d)	4.81 ± 1.73 8.66 ± 5.14	4.51 ± 1.54 7.73 ± 2.04	0.120 0.068
Postoperative complications	16	6	0.412
Pulmonary infection	7	1	0.171
Abdominal infection	3	1	0.664
Wound problem	1	2	0.254
Anastomotic leakage	3	0	0.198
Chylous fistula	1	0	0.459
Anastomotic bleeding	1	1	0.663
Septicemia	1	1	0.663