1. Measures reported in non‐parametric form.

Variable	Study	Laparoscopic group	Open surgery group	P value
Nasogastric aspiration time (median and range)	Bertleff 2009	2 (3.0) IQR	3 (1.3) IQR	0.33
	Siu 2002	3 (2‐33)	3(1‐8)	0.28
	Lau 1996	2 (1‐4)/ 3 (2‐1)	2 (1‐13)/ 3(1‐17)	No significant (P value not reported)
Time to return to oral diet	Siu 2002	4 (3‐35)	5 (3‐24)	0.06
	Lau 1996	4 (3‐7)/ 4 (2‐11)	4 (3‐16)/ 4 (3‐19)	No significant (P value not reported)
Length of stay	Bertleff 2009	6.5 (9.3) IQR	8 (7.3) IQR	0.23
	Siu 2002	6 (4‐35)	7 (4‐39)	0.004
	Lau 1996	5 (3‐20)/ 6 (3‐11)	5 (3‐19)/ 5 (2‐21)	No significant (P value not reported)
Analgesic doses	Siu 2002	0 (0‐11)	6 (1‐30)	<0.001
	Lau 1996	1 (0‐12)/ 2 (0‐17)	3 (0‐10)/ 4 (1‐9)	0.03
	Bertleff 2009	1 (1.25) median days of analgesics	1 (1.0) median days of analgesics	0.007