Between March 2019 and September 2022 in our centre, R anastomosis was performed on 123 patients undergoing TLDG for distal gastric cancer. A retrospective review of a prospectively collected database identified patients who underwent TLDG between January 2010 and September 2022. Patients who underwent R anastomosis were matched in a 1:1 ratio with patients who underwent conventional anastomosis using a propensity score based on age, sex, preoperative BMI, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score, and the history of abdominal surgery. Surgical and postoperative outcomes and clinicopathological data were analyzed for both groups.

Inclusion Criteria:

1. elective surgery for endoscopic and pathological diagnosis of malignant tumour of the gastric antrum or body with no distant metastases confirmed by multilayer spiral computed tomography;
2. patients who underwent B-II-B anastomosis during TLDG; and (3) patients who could be followed up postoperatively.

Exclusion Criteria:

(1) patients who had received preoperative neoadjuvant radiotherapy or chemotherapy; (2) patients undergoing emergency surgery; (3) the presence of other malignant tumours concurrently; and (4) patients who were lost to follow-up.

between March 2019 and September 2022 at Northern Jiangsu people's hospital were prospectively collected, and data from patients who underwent conventional anastomosis (control group) were retrospectively collected from the same prospectively maintained database of patients who underwent TLDG between January 2010 and February 2019 at Northern Jiangsu people's hospital.