Esophagectomy without mortality: what can surgeons do?
BACKGROUND
Surgical resection remains the mainstay treatment for patients with localized esophageal cancer. It is, however, a complex procedure. Mortality rate used to be high, but in recent years, death rate has been reduced to below 5% in specialized centers.


METHODS
Outcome of esophagectomy can be improved by paying attention to (1) appropriate patient section, (2) choice of surgical techniques and their execution, and (3) optimizing perioperative care. A volume-outcome relationship is also evident. Surgeons can perform esophagectomy without mortality, but a multi-disciplinary team management is essential to achieve this goal.
Department of Surgery, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong, China. slaw@hku.hk
Simon
S
Law
D002983:Clinical Competence; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D016629:Esophagectomy / Q000379:methods / Q000401:mortality / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D010348:Patient Care Team; D018579:Patient Selection; D019990:Perioperative Care; D018570:Risk Assessment