Comparison of hand-sewn and stapled anastomoses in surgeries of gastrointestinal tumors based on clinical practice of China

Table 1 Comparison of recovery time to commencing normal liquid diet between the manual and stapled anastomosis groups after surgery

Tumor types	Anastomotic methods	Number of cases	The normal time for liquid diet after surgery (day) ( $x ¯ ± SD$ )	t- value	P- value
Esophageal cancer	Manual procedure	32	8.38 ± 3.11	0.607	> 0.05
Esophageal cancer	Stapler suture	64	8.02 ± 1.77	0.607	> 0.05