title: Esophageal resection and by-pass: a 6 year experience with a low postoperative mortality.
abstract: From 1984 to 1989, 175 esophageal cancer patients, 10 patients admitted for severe caustic esophagitis, and 1 patient with pyothorax due to iatrogenic perforation of the esophagus underwent an esophageal resection or bypass operation. One hundred sixty-eight esophageal resections were performed on 167 patients; 13 were total, 106 subtotal and 49 distal. Nineteen digestive transplants were pulled up to the neck to bypass the esophagus or re-establish continuity after an esophagectomy made elsewhere. Digestive continuity was restored by a long gastric transplant in 120 patients, a colon segment in 17, a jejunal loop in 35, and a short gastric transplant after limited esophago-gastrectomy in 14 patients. Thirty day mortality was 0 in the whole group. Hospital mortality was 1.2% in the resection group and 10.5% in the bypass group (p = 0.048). Nonfatal postoperative complications consisted of respiratory distress in 33 patients, recurrent nerve palsy in 10, anastomotic fistula in 10 (cervical in 8 and intrathoracic in 2) and anastomotic stenosis in 18 patients. Respiratory complications were more frequent in patients with a cancer of the thoracic esophagus (29/111) than in those operated on for a cancer located in the esophago-gastric junction (4/50) (p less than 0.01). Anastomotic stenosis occurred more frequently in the neck (17/137) than in the chest (1/49) (p less than 0.05). Nine patients were reoperated on for a technical complication; intraabdominal hemorrhage (1), thoracic duct injury (2), acute cholecystitis (1), tight stricture of the esophageal anastomosis (2), jejuno-duodenal anastomotic fistula (2), or stridor related to recurrent nerve palsy (1).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
authors.affiliation: Digestive Surgery Unit, Louvain Medical School, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Collard
authors.forename: J B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Otte
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reynaert
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Michel
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Carlier
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Kestens
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007431:Intraoperative Complications; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control*; D015996:Survival Rate