Improved surgical palliation of advanced carcinoma of the esophagus

Fifty-four patients with far-advanced carcinoma of the esophagus were operated on between the years 1974 and 1976. No attempts were made to resect the lesion. The stomach was used fifty-three times to bypass the lesion and the right colon was used once. In twenty-eight patients the stomach was placed substernally and the anastomosis was done in the neck. Twenty-five patients had the anastomosis to the esophagus done in the chest. The thirty day operative mortality was 7.4 per cent and the average survival was five months.