Background: Esophageal diseases vary in relation to geographic and behavioral factors. Whether benign or malignant, these diseases interfere with food swallowing. Surgical treatment is variable and aims at restoring the alimentary tract continuity. In this research the authors retrospectively studied esophageal pathologies and their surgical treatment in their department over a 6 year period.
Patients and methods: The records of all patients who underwent surgery for esophageal pathology in a single surgical department at a referral center between January 2002 and December 2007 were reviewed. Data that was collected included patient age, gender, type of pathology, staging, type and length of surgery, length of hospital stay, post-operative morbidity and mortality.
Results: During the study period, 186 patients were operated for esophageal pathology, 154 (83%) had malignant disease and 32 (17%) had benign disease. The distribution of malignancy types was: adenocarcinoma 57%, squamous cell carcinoma 27%, signet ring cell carcinoma 8%, and other 8%. Median length of post-operative hospital stay was 27 days. Thirty two percent of the patients experienced complications, including anastomotic leak (10%), respiratory (9.5%) or cardiac (2%) complications, and infection (7.5%), while 3% required re-operation. Postoperative mortality rate in the hospital was 6.5%.
Conclusions: The majority of patients undergoing esophageal surgery suffer malignancy, mainly adenocarcinoma. The surgery is extensive and is followed by a long recovery period, during which the patient is subject to a variety of complications. Mortality rate is significant yet comparable to centers around the world with high volume of esophageal operations.