Table 4. Characteristics of the articles included in the meta-analysis.

Studies	Approach	Age(years)	Male/Female	BMI(Kg/m2)	Tumor diameters(cm)	Tumor depth				Number of metastatic LN				Stage(No.)				Extension of surgery				Lymphadenectomy		Follow-up (Months)
						T1	T2	T3	T4a	N0	N1	N2	N3	I	II	III	IV	None	Spleen	Other organs or multiple	Spleen and orther organs	D1	D2
BozzettiF[9]	TG		175/129							130								221	56	11	16	0	304
	DG		187/133							157								288	17	12	3	0	320
BozzettiF[10]	TG		174/129			74	73	149	7	126	112	44	19	104	68	75	54	220	56	11	16	0	303	75
	DG		183/132			96	74	138	7	155	96	45	19	134	65	58	58	286	15	11	3	0	315	72
Gockel I[11]	TG		156/84			36	109	70	25	67	58	90	25						153	9		0	240	120
	DG		54/26			22	34	17	7	29	21	25	5						1	0		0	80
MoghimiM[12]	TG	58.75±7.2	20/15																			0	35	20
	DG	63.06±5.1	21/10																			0	31
Lee SE[13]	LTG	52.3±13.6	39/28	22.9±2.9	4.0±2.9	51	16	0	0	56				61	6							32	35
	LDG	57.0±12.1	266/207	24.0±3.0	3.1±1.8	428	45	0	0	414				453	20							199	274
Jang YJ[14]	TG	53.42±13.07	101/77		6.52±3.39									17	37	89	35					44	134	60
	DG	54.41±13.65	95/53		4.04±2.11									36	41	62	9					49	99
Mocan L[15]	TG	63.5±8.1	58/31			24	24	29	12	44	25	15	4	25	25	48		9	15	24	29	25	64
	DG	63.5±8.1	49/42			30	16	38	7	38	29	17	7	35	18	38		8	22	38	16	42	49
Park SJ[16]	TG	56.9±12.1	41/20	23.8±2.9										55	5	1							61	24
	DG	59.2±11.1	121/93	23.8±2.8										202	12	0							214
Kim DJ[7]	LTG	61.4±12.3	67/27		5.0±3.3	37	14	21	22	61	6	10	17	46	22	26						17	77
	LDG	61.9±12.0	348/221		3.0±2.2	409	60	63	37	446	46	39	38	432	75	62						232	337
Lin JX[6]	LTG	62.4±10.8	766/210	21.9±2.9	5.9±2.6	128	357	491	0	214	158	175	429	72	252	652								32
	LDG	60.2±10.7	444/202	22.1±3.2	4.5±1.8	136	223	287	0	144	88	158	256	69	165	412
Liu Z[17]	TG	54.3±11.0	51/20			9	9	26	28	19	11	15	26	10	19	42								20
	DG	55.8±11.9	101/41			16	18	52	56	41	44	25	32	22	52	68