Jin HE, et al. - Researchers examined surgical outcomes, postoperative recovery, pain, and complications following curative surgical treatment of gastric cancer using laparoscopic-assisted distal gastrectomy (LADG) vs totally laparoscopic distal gastrectomy (TLDG). Exploring PubMed, Google Scholar, Medline, Embase, and Cochrane databases, they included 25 studies (24 non-RCT and 1 RCT) with a total of 4562 gastric cancer patients in the meta-analysis. Outcomes revealed no significant differences between TLDG and LADG regarding surgical outcomes and postoperative complications, including anastomotic-related morbidity. Therefore, extra-surgical values, such as cosmesis, economics, and patient's quality of life, superseded surgical outcomes, in selecting surgical procedures for these patients.