Table 1.

Study and patient characteristics of the included studies

Author, year	Population	Sample	Age, median (range)years	Country	Design	Period	In- and exclusion criteria
Tegels JJ et al. 2014 [20]	gastric adenocarcinoma	180	69.8 (37–88)	Netherlands	retrospective study	1/2005–9/2012	Inclusion- Elective gastric surgery Exclusion - None
Sato T et al. 2016 [21]	gastric cancer	293	66 (33–85)	Japan	retrospective study	5/2011–6/2013	Inclusion - Elective gastric surgery Exclusion - ECOG performance status 3 or 4
Fukuda Y et al., 2016 [22]	gastric cancer	99	> 65	Japan	prospective study	7/2012–1/2015	Inclusion - Elective gastric surgery Exclusion - combined resection
Wang S-L et al. 2016 [23]	ASA grade ≤ III gastric denocarcinoma	255	65.14 (10.81)	China	prospective study	8/2014–3/2015	Inclusion - Elective gastric surgery Exclusion - unresectable
Tegels JJ et al., 2015 [15]	gastric adenocarcinoma	149	69.6 (37–88)	Netherlands	retrospective study	1/2005–9/2012	Inclusion - Elective gastric surgery Exclusion - None
Zhuang CL et al., 2016 [24]	gastric cancer	937	64.0 (median15.0)	China	retrospective study	12/2008–4/2013	Inclusion - Elective gastric surgery Exclusion - None
Chen FF et al., 2016 [19]	undergoing TG with D2 lymphadenectomy for gastric cancer	158	66.9 ± 8.7	China	prospective study	8/2014–2/2016	Inclusion - histologically proven gastric adenocarcinoma -ASA grade of III or less Exclusion - unresectable
Nishigori T et al., 2016 [25]	gastric cancer	157	>60(average age)	Japan	retrospective study	3/2006–10/2014	Inclusion –LTG Exclusion -None

Legend: SD standard deviation, NR not reported. LTG laparoscopic total gastrectomy, ECOG Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group