RESUMEN
Background: Surgical treatment of esophageal carcinoma is a main operation in term of both technique and anesthesiology. The Orringer technique is one of the treatments. Objectives: 1. To describe clinical and subclinical characteristics of the middle and lower-third esophageal carcinoma. 2. To assess preliminary results of Orringer technique in treating of the middle and lower-third esophageal carcinoma. Subjects and method: A prospective, descriptive, following by time study was conducted in the patients who were diagnosed the middle and lower third esophageal carcinoma and operated by Orringer technique at the Department of Digestive Surgery in Viet Duc Hospital from January/2000 to June/2006. Results: The subclinical symptoms included difficult swallow (98.5%), anorexia and loss weight (98.5%), pain in chest (23.5%), loss of voice (2.9%) and bloody vomiting (5.9%). For clinical symptoms, 54/68 patients (79.4%) had lesions in lower-third esophageal, 14/68 (20.6%) had lesions in the middle-third esophageal. The average length of the lesions was 6.23\xb12.22cm (95% CI=5.69-6.77). The average operation time was 273.38 \xb154.56 minutes (range: 140-420), which is much faster than those in esophagectomy via thoracotomy: Lewis-Santy technique (324 minutes) and Akiyama technique (480 minutes). Both intraoperative and post-operative complications of Orringer technique were less than those of esophagectomy via thoracotomy. Conclusion: In this study, the clinical and subclinical strongest characteristics of the patients with the middle-third esophageal carcinoma appear in the advanced period (III period and IV period (over 70%)). Orringer technique had faster operation time, less complications and lower mortality than those of esophagectomy via thoracotomy.