title: [Condition of patients who require heart surgery during treatment for advanced digestive cancer and early recurrence after surgery- an assessment from the viewpoint of digestive surgeons].
abstract: The need for cardiac surgery among patients undergoing treatment for advanced digestive cancer is limited to the following situations:(i) heart diseases that can be life threatening if left untreated and that cannot be cured by medicinal treatment alone (e.g., cardiac tumors) and (ii) heart diseases (e.g., infectious endocarditis and pulmonary thromboembolism) occurring after digestive cancer surgery that need emergency treatment and that are resistant to medicinal treatment. We encountered 2 cases that required cardiac surgery.( Case 1) A 68-year-old woman with advanced gastric carcinoma accompanied by pyloric stenosis and left atrial myxoma underwent radical surgery for gastric cancer( Stage IIIA). Subsequently, the left atrial myxoma was resected before adjuvant chemotherapy for the treatment of gastric cancer was administered. One month after the surgery, multiple liver metastases appeared. However, they disappeared after chemotherapy was completed, and the patient survived for more than 3 years with complete response. (Case 2) A 67-year-old woman who underwent a Hartmann operation for obstructive rectal cancer (Stage II) experienced infectious endocarditis after the surgery. Because the endocarditis was resistant to medicinal treatment and acute heart failure was anticipated, cardiac surgery was performed. Approximately 2 months after the surgery, the bacilli( methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus [MRSA]) were not found in blood culture. However, multiple liver metastases appeared immediately after the disappearance of the bacilli, and the patient died 3 months after the surgery. In both cases, cancer recurrence occurred early after cardiac surgery. Excessive surgical stress due to cardiac surgery may have promoted cancer recurrence. A decision pertaining to the timing of cardiac surgery is difficult in cases of patients with advanced digestive cancer and co-existing heart disease, which cannot be cured by medicinal treatment.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Surgery, Fujisaki Hospital.
authors.forename: Shigeru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fujisaki
authors.forename: Motoi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takashina
authors.forename: Shuhei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Ryouichi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tomita
authors.forename: Kenichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sakurai
authors.forename: Tadatoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takayama
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Tomonori
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D012004:Rectal Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D012008:Recurrence; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy