Quality of Life After Routine Nasogastric Decompression After Distal Gastrectomy for Gastric Cancer Patients

Phase III Study for the Significance of Nasogastric Decompression Tube After Curative Distal Gastrectomy for Gastric Cancer Patients

The aim of the study is to evaluate whether distal gastrectomy without post-operative nasogastric decompression tube is better in terms of quality of life.

Nasogastric decompression tube is an intra-operative routine in most of the time to facilitate exposure of operative field during elective distal gastrectomy, however, whether it should be retained post-operatively is controversial. Nasogastric decompression tube helps to drain the gastric remnant in case there is edema around the gastrojejunostomy, ileus and delayed gastric emptying, which can theoretically relieve nausea and abdominal distension. However, nasogastric intubation could cause patients discomfort; also it has been shown that it would cause gastroesophageal reflux which may be associated with pulmonary complication.

Inclusion Criteria:

• on the basis of whether distal gastrectomy was anticipated at WMUH for gastric cancer.

Exclusion Criteria:

• patients who were diagnosed inadequacy for this study by a physician.
• patients without an informed consent.