The contemporary surgery has reported the safety of laparoscopic surgery (LAP) for patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs). However, its use is still debated due to suspicion of the oncologic equivalence to open surgery (OPEN). We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of updated original articles to investigate the short- and long-term clinical outcomes of LAP compared with OPEN for GISTs.

A systematic search was performed in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library and CNKI. Comparative studies of laparoscopic and open surgery for GISTs were published before November 2016. The Newcastle-Ottawa scale was utilized to conduct quality assessment. The Review Manager (RevMan) software version 5.0 was used for meta-analysis.

Twenty-four studies involving 2140 patients were included for the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis results showed that, compared with OPEN, LAP indicated potentially favorable outcomes in terms of operative time (WMD, −30.71; 95% CI, −58.48 to −2.95; P = 0.03); intraoperative blood loss (WMD, −60.90; 95% CI, −91.53 to −30.28; P < 0.0001); time to flatus (WMD, −1.10; 95% CI, −1.41 to −0.79; P < 0.00001); time to oral intake (WMD, −1.25; 95% CI, −1.64 to −0.86; P < 0.00001); length of hospital stay (WMD, −3.42; 95% CI, −4.37 to −2.46; P < 0.00001); overall complications (OR, 0.38; 95% CI, 0.27 to 0.54; P < 0.00001); and recurrence (OR, 0.45; 95% CI, 0.30 to 0.66; P < 0.0001).

Laparoscopic surgery is safe and feasible for the treatment of GISTs including less operative time and intraoperative blood loss, earlier postoperative recovery, shorter hospital stay, and lower rate of overall complications and recurrence.