title: Oesophagectomy without thoracotomy. Experiences from 30 cases.
abstract: In 26 patients with malignancies of the oesophagus or cardia and three with benign lesions the intrathoracic oesophagus was resected via abdominal and cervical incisions only and reconstructed with the stomach, a colon interposition or jejunal loop. The operation was chosen to omit the thoracotomy in patients with reduced tolerance to surgery or to secure a safe resectional margin in patients with easily resected tumours. With the exception of two patients, the method was not used for removal of mid-oesophageal tumours. Awareness of the possibility of intrathoracic complications such as bleeding into the pleural cavity is required during the procedure. A high mortality among the older patients contributed to a total mortality of 24%, indicating that the avoidance of a thoracotomy does not necessarily make the operation better tolerated, but it takes less time and postoperative morbidity is reduced.
authors: Department of Thoracic Surgery, Lund University, Sweden.
authors: G M
authors: GM
authors: Hambraeus
authors: B S
authors: BS
authors: Walther
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000714:Anastomosis, Surgical; D002299:Cardia; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D004947:Esophagus / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008722:Methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D010166:Palliative Care; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D013908:Thoracotomy