Objective To summarize the clinical experience of surgical treatment for cervical and upper thoracic esophageal cancer (the distance between the upper margin of tumor and the inlet of chest is/or less than 3cm), so as to enhance the surgery curative effect and reduce the occurrence of complications. Methods Clinical material of 142 patients with esophageal carcinoma in the neck and upper thorax in this hospital were retrospectively analyzed. Radical excision were taken for 122 patients, palliative excision were taken for 15 patients and exploration were taken for 5 patients, total excision rate was 96.5%. The main type of surgical reconstruction technique includes: simple replacement of esophagus with stomach, colon replacement of esophagus technique, jejunum replacement of esophagus, pectoral major muscleskin flap reconstruction; the right chestupper abdomenneck three incisions for the stomach replacement of esophagus technique, an entire throat excision+stomach replacement of esophagus, a tube stomach replacement of esophagus, left chestneck two incisions, stomach replacement of esophagus technique. Results There were 5 postoperative deaths, two of which died of pulmonary infection, one died of serious infection due to colon necrosis, one died of pulmonary infection due to esophagealtracheal fistula after palliative excision, one died of suffocation due to massive regurgitations. Tumor cells were discovered on the cancer edge of esophagus by pathology in 9 patients. Eight patients with carcinoma of the cervical and 21 patients with carcinoma of the upper thoracic esophagus were suffered from one or more kind of postoperative complications. Mainly complications consisted of the jejunum necrosis, the colon necrosis, the recurrent nerve damage, the lungs infection, the swallow function barrier, esophageal regurgitation. The total of 117(85.4%) survivals were followed up from 1 to 5 years, 20 patients were missed followup. The 1, 3, 5 years survival rate after surgical treatment were 72%,48% and 31% respectively. The 5 year survival rate of the patients in Ⅰ,Ⅱ,Ⅲ,Ⅳa stage were 82.3%, 61.2%, 25.0% and 5.0% respectively. Conclusion Further studies about operation mode, excision area, prevention for postoperative complication, preservation and reconstruction of normal function for patients suffering from the cervical and upper thoracic esophageal cancer (the distance between the upper margin of tumor and the inlet of chest is/or less than 3cm) is still expected.

Citation： ZHUANG Xiang,LI Qiang,CHEN Lihua,LI Bin,HAN Yongtao,REN Guangguo.. Surgical Treatment of the Cervical and Upper Thoracic Esophageal Carcinoma. Chinese Journal of Clinical Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, 2008, 15(4): 264-267. doi: Copy