RESUMO
Objective Thoracic cavity fistula following esophagus carcinoma resection is a serious complication with a high mortality.This study aims at a better therapy for thoracic cavity fistula following esophagus carcinoma resection by summarizing the ex-perience with the four-tube strategy ( jejunal fistula tube, stomach tube, chest drainage tube, and nasal fistula tube) in the treatment of the complication. Methods We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data about 62 cases of thoracic cavity fistula following esopha-gus carcinoma resection, 35 treated with the four-tube strategy ( treatment group) and the other 27 with the three-tube ( stomach tube, chest drainage tube, and nasal fistula tube) method ( control group) .We compared the hospital days, wound healing time, mortality, and incidence of anastomotic stenosis at 6 months after operation between the two groups of patients. Results Compared with the controls, the treatment group showed remarkable decreases in the hospital days (P0.05 ) . Conclusion Compared with the three-tube method, the four-tube strategy has the advantages of shorter healing time and lower mortali-ty, and therefore is preferable for the treatment of thoracic cavity fis-tula following esophagus carcinoma resection.