PLoS ONE (Jan 2013)

Modified McKeown minimally invasive esophagectomy for esophageal cancer: a 5-year retrospective study of 142 patients in a single institution.

  • Baofu Chen,
  • Bo Zhang,
  • Chengchu Zhu,
  • Zhongrui Ye,
  • Chunguo Wang,
  • Dehua Ma,
  • Minhua Ye,
  • Min Kong,
  • Jiang Jin,
  • Jiang Lin,
  • Chunlei Wu,
  • Zheng Wang,
  • Jiahong Ye,
  • Jian Zhang,
  • Quanteng Hu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0082428
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 12
p. e82428

Abstract

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BACKGROUND: To achieve decreased invasiveness and lower morbidity, minimally invasive esophagectomy (MIE) was introduced in 1997 for localized esophageal cancer. The combined thoracoscopic-laparoscopic esophagectomy (left neck anastomosis, defined as the McKeown MIE procedure) has been performed since 2007 at our institution. From 2007 to 2011, our institution subsequently evolved as a high-volume MIE center in China. We aim to share our experience with MIE, and have evaluated the outcomes of 142 patients. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 142 consecutive patients who had presented with esophageal cancer undergoing McKeown MIE from July 2007 to December 2011. The procedure, surgical outcomes, disease-free and overall survival of these cases were assessed. RESULTS: The average total procedure time was 270.5 ± 28.1 min. The median operation time for thoracoscopy was 81.5 ± 14.6 min and for laparoscopy was 63.8 ± 9.1 min. The average blood loss associated with thoracoscopy was 123.8 ± 39.2 ml, and for laparoscopic procedures was 49.9 ± 14.3 ml. The median number of lymph nodes retrieved was 22.8. The 30 day mortality rate was 0.7%. Major surgical complications occurred in 24.6% and major non-surgical complications occurred in 18.3% of these patients. The median DFS and OS were 36.0 ± 2.6 months and 43.0 ± 3.4 months respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Surgical and oncological outcomes following McKeown MIE for esophageal cancer were acceptable and comparable with those of open-McKeown esophagectomy. The procedure was both feasible and safe - properties that can be consolidated by experience.