Introduction.

Gastric cancer is a disease with a great health burden worldwide, with high incidence and prevalence figures, for which it requires safe treatment that allows low morbidity, better survival and quality of life. Among the currently available treatments, laparoscopic gastrectomy is considered a less morbid and safe procedure with good oncological results.

Methods.

Descriptive observational study that included patients with gastric cancer who underwent laparoscopic gastrectomy at the Hospital Universitario del Caribe during a period of 5 years.

Results.

In the total population, the age was 68.3 ± 11.4 years, the body mass index was 23.6 ± 2.6 kg/m2, and the hospital stay was 18.7 ± 11.7 days. A 60% of the patients were men and 55% of the contributory regimen, coming from the emergency department in 77.5 %, with arterial hypertension in 62.5%, diabetes mellitus in 40% and other cardiovascular alterations in 7.5%. Regarding the surgical act, 35% were admitted with low pre-surgical risk and seven patients (17.5%) required pre-surgical transfusion. Total gastrectomy was performed in half and subtotal in the other half of the patients, under general anesthesia. The macroscopic lesion was found in 30 % in the gastric body, 30% in the fundus, and 30% in the antrum, with 87.5% being adenocarcinoma. The most common types according to the Bormann classification were IV in 55% and III in 27.5%, with stage IIIB in 37.5% and IIB in 40%.

Conclusion.

Laparoscopic gastrectomy in the Hospital Universitario del Caribe, Cartagena, Colombia, presents a good safety profile with the same tendency of epidemiological profile to the one reported worldwide.

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