Clinical analysis on 552 cases of short surgical incisim via short left anterolater for esophageal and gastric cardia cancer

Aim:To determine the feasibility and the clinical application of short left anterolateral incision in the treatment of esophageal and gastric cardia cancers.Methods:In the pilot study,100 eligible candidates were randomly divided into short chest incision group (experiment group) and routine incision group (control group),with 50 cases in each group. The operation time,blood losing,lymphadenectomy,drainage and complications were documented and statistacally analyzed. In the following study,502 consecutive cases of esophageal or cardia cancer resection via short incision were performed to validate the previous study.Results:No significant differences were observed on the operation time,the number of lymphadenectomy between the experiment and control groups (P0.05). Hower,the blood lossing,drainage and complications in the experiment group were much less or fewer than those in the control group (P0.05). In the validation study,postoperative complication rate was 6.8%,with no death occuring. No obvious limitation of motion for patients' shoulder and limbs was observed 3 months after discharge.Conclusion:Short left anterolateral incision for esophageal or gastric cardia cancer resection has the advantages of less trauma and fewer complications. This surgical procedure does not affect the efficacy but improve the patients' postoperative quality of life.