AB09. Application of staplers for gastrointestinal surgery

Abstract: Digestive tract reconstruction is a main part of gastrointestinal surgery. In recent years, the development of instruments promotes the modern surgery. Staplers have been widely used in gastrointestinal surgery. Stapled anastomosis was associated with shorter operating time and length of hospital stay, less amount of bleeding and tissue damage than hand-sewn anastomosis. Although more surgeons prefer stapling anastomosis, anastomotic complications can’t be avoided. As one of the three most important factors, surgeons play an important role in anastomosis and are related to the success of anastomosis. With the rapid development of technology and wider application of stapling, more and more surgeons select stapled anastomosis. However, it’s difficult to select the suitable staplers from a large number of them and use them correctly. The improper staplers and use-methods can lead to serious postoperative complications. Now, staplers can accomplish almost all kinds of anastomosis in gastrointestinal surgeries. The recent meta-analysis showed that stapling anastomosis has great superiorities over hand-sewn anastomosis, but it can’t replace hand-sewn anastomosis completely. Surgeons should apply with the basic rules of surgery and master the correct procedures to get the better effect of surgery, so as to benefit patients. Application of staplers for anastomosis in gastrointestinal surgery is introduced in this article.

Keywords: Mechanical anastomosis; stapler