Clinical application of modified inflatable video-assisted mediastinoscopic transhiatal esophagectomy in patients with early esophageal cancer

Abstract

Objective To investigate the feasibility, safety and short-term efficacy of modified inflatable video-mediastinoscopy in patients with early esophageal cancer. Methods The study retrospectively evaluated 54 patients with cT1N0M0 esophageal carcinoma who received minimally invasive esophagectomy in the First Affiliated Hospital of University of Science and Technology of China between July 2017 and June 2018. Of those patients, 23 patients underwent modified inflatable video-assisted mediastinoscopic transhiatal esophagectomy(MIVMTS) and 31 underwent minimally invasive McKeown esophagectomy(MIME). The clinicopathologic factors, operational factors, postoperative complications and lymph node dissection of patients were compared. Results There was no significant difference in clinicopathological data between the MIVMTS group and MIME group. The incidence of total minor postoperative complications, pulmonary infection of minior postoperative complications, total postoperative complications and total pulmonary complications in MIME group were higher than MIVMTS group. The incidence of recurrent laryngeal nerve injury, arrhythmia and air leaks in minior and pulmonary infection, chylothorax, anastomotic fistula in major postoprative complications were no different in the two groups with P>0.05. The intraoperative blood loss, duration of surgery and postoperative thoracic drainage fluid volume of MIVMTS group were less than MIME group, the difference was statistically significant. The postoperative hospitalization of the two groups have no statistics significance(P>0.05). There were no significant difference in the lymph node dessection of the left laryngeal recurrent nerve lymph nodes, paraesophageal lymph nodes, subcarinal lymph nodes and superior phrenic lymph node of the two groups. However, when compared with MIVMTS group, the MIME group have advantage in the right laryngeal recurrent para-nerve lymph node dissection. Conclusion MIVMTS can be safely and effectively performed for early esophageal cancer with favorable short-term efficacy. Key words: Esophageal neoplasms; Esophagectomy; Lymph node dissection