Tube stomach in esophageal cancer surgery

The traditional surgery for esophageal cancer is to leave the cardia unsevered and to anastomose the whole stomach up to the thoracic cavity with the esophageal stump. The postoperative result of this is that the thoracic stomach occupies a large space, and thoracic gastric dilatation occurs after eating, and without good anti-reflux measures for the anastomosis, the symptoms of regurgitation are severe in the postoperative period. The use of tube stomach is a more common method used by scholars in recent years to alleviate thoracic gastric symptoms and reduce esophageal reflux. It has the following advantages: First, it can effectively reduce the thoracic gastric syndrome. Since esophageal cancer surgery changes the anatomy of the digestive tract and has a great impact on the physiological function of the digestive tract, choosing a more physiological and anatomical surgical method is extremely important for the patients’ postoperative recovery and quality of life. Conventional surgery places the whole stomach into the thoracic cavity, and when the thoracic stomach expands and compresses the mediastinum and lungs after eating, it causes chest tightness and discomfort, and the ventilation of the lungs decreases, resulting in respiratory discomfort and tightness of breath and other symptoms. Tubular stomach instead of esophagus surgery, so that the caliber of the trimmed stomach lumen is closer to the original esophagus, anatomically making it closer to the function of the esophagus, and has less impact on the compression of the surrounding tissues and organs, especially reduces the compression on the lungs, the lungs can be fully inflated, facilitating the expulsion of sputum and the recovery of lung function, thus reducing the complications of the lungs. Secondly, it favors gastric emptying and reduces reflux. Because radical resection of esophageal cancer has to cut off vagus nerve, the tension of whole stomach is reduced by routine transposition, and the emptying is weakened to make gastric retention and reflux. As the upper part of tubular stomach is tubular and the lower part is wide, it is morphologically closer to the original esophagus and stomach, and the extended gastric tube is mentioned to the top of the chest or neck for anastomosis without excessively pulling the gastric sinus and pylorus, which is equivalent to normal physiological channel, and it will relatively reduce the retention of food in the stomach and the chance of regurgitation will be reduced, so that the patient can lie down flat after the operation. Third, it reduces the recurrence of the transplanted gastric tumor. Resection of lymph nodes in the lesser curvature of the stomach reduces tumor transplantation. Abdominal regional lymph node metastasis of thoracic segment esophageal cancer often involves the region of the lesser curvature of the gastric body. Squamous carcinoma recurrence in the thoracic stomach after radical esophageal cancer surgery is the result of incomplete removal of lymph node metastasis in the lesser curvature region of the stomach. Partial tubular gastric surgery with removal of the upper lesser curvature margin of the gastric body has reduced recurrence of transplanted gastric tumors. We combined the application of this technique with the previously used unequal encapsulation anastomosis approach, and patient postoperative comfort was greatly improved. The surgical use of ultrasonic knives and linear cutting closures has resulted in a significant decrease in surgical bleeding, achieving essentially no blood or blood product transfusions, and a significant reduction in patient costs, reflecting the value that modern technology brings to the table.