Significance of mediastinum drainage tube in prevention and treatment of intrathoracic anastomotic leak after esophagectomy / 中国综合临床

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the significance of mediastinum drainage tube in prevention and treatment of intrathoracic anastomotic leak after esophagectomy. Methods The morbidity and prognosis of intrathoracic anas-tomotic leak after esophagectomy in 180 patients with esophageal or cardia carcinoma (group A) who used mediasti-num drainage tube in operation from 2006 to 2008 was studied retrospectively,and were compare with 154 patients (group B) without mediastinum drainage tube from 2004 to 2006. Results The morbidity of intrathoracic anasto-motic leak after esophagectomy was 1.67% (3/180) in group A,and 4.55% (7/154) in group B,but no difference between them(χ2=1.4807, P>0.05) were found. Compared to group B, the final diagnosis of anastomotic leak in group A was early [(6.7±0.6) vs (10.0±2.1) days after operation (t=2.62, P<0.05)] and the duration of fe-ver was short [(5.3±1.5)vs (43.0±20.9) hours (t=4.39, P<0.01)]. The prognosis of 3 cases in group A was well, who all recovered without operation and had shorten hospital days than group B [(23.7±5.9)d vs (45.3± 5.0)d,t=4.86,P<0.01)]. In 7 cases of group B,there were 5 cases underwent second operation,but only 3 cases recovered, the case fatality rate was 2.60% (4/154), higher than in group A (0, Fisher, P<0.05). Conclusions Although the mediastinum drainage tube used or not used in esophagectomy is unrelated with the occurrence of anas-tomotic leak, and the significance to use it is that it can help to discover anastomotic leak early, and control mediasti-num infection effectively without reoperation,and improve patients' prognosis.