Surgical technique and short-term outcomes in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma : A single center experience

Abstract

Aim: Esophagus cancers are the 8th most commonly seen cancers worldwide and the 6th cause of cancer-related mortality. Bythe time they are diagnosed they are generally not resectable and therefore have a poor prognosis. This is a complex diseasethat requires a multi-disciplinary approach. Apart from early stage tumors, surgery is recommended following chemoradiotherapy.Squamous cell carcinomas are seen more frequently and several surgical methods are applied for curative resection. The aim of thisstudy was to present the surgical techniques applied to patients who underwent surgery for esophagus squamous cell carcinomaand to discuss the postoperative outcomes.Material and Methods: A retrospective review was made of the records of 14 patients with esophagus squamous cell carcinomawho underwent surgery in Samsun Training and Research Hospital between June 2016 and September 2018. Patients’ demographicdata, diagnoses, tumor characteristics, postoperative complications, mortality, and clinical findings during follow-up were recorded.Results: The study included 14 patients, comprising 9 females and 5 males with a median age was 65.3 years (range, 39-80 years).Transhiatal esophagectomy was applied to 12 patients and thoraco-laparoscopic (TL) esophagectomy to 2 patients. No intraoperativecomplications developed in the patients applied with TL esophagectomy. In 3 of the patients applied with transhiatalesophagectomy, pneumothorax developed. No early or late postoperative complications developed in the patients applied with TLesophagectomy. In the transhiatal esophagectomy group, anastomosis leakage was observed in 2 patients and wound site infectionin 1. The median length of hospital stay was 14 days (range, 7-39 days), and median postoperative follow-up was 12.5 months(range, 4-22 months).Conclusion: Despite small number of patients and short follow up, our study suggest that surgery-related morbidity and mortalitywill be lower in minimally invasive esophagectomy.