D. Lee1, C. Takahashi2, R. Shridhar3, J. Huston4, K. Meredith1 1Florida State University College Of Medicine,Gastrointestinal Oncology,Sarasota, FL, USA 2Midwestern University,Phoenix, AZ, USA 3University Of Central Florida,Orlando, FL, USA 4Sarasota Memorial Health Care System,Sarasota, FLORIDA, USA
Introduction: Anastomotic leaks (AL) causes significant morbidity after esophagectomy. Most patients receive neoadjuvant chemoradiation (NCR) prior to esophagectomy which has been associated with increase perioperative complications and mortality. We report on a comparison of AL rates in upfront surgical (US) and NCR patients.
Methods: A prospectively managed esophagectomy database was queried for US and NCR patients treated between 1996-2015. Predictors of AL rate were identified using multivariate (MVA) analysis and propensity score matching (PSM).
Results: We identified 820 patients (US – 288; NCR – 532). Overall AL rate was 5.4%. Decreased AL rate was observed in NCR patients on MVA (8% vs 4.1%; p = 0.04) but no difference was seen after PSM (7.7% vs 4.2%; p=0.14). MVA of factors associated with decreased AL in US patients included distal esophageal tumors and body mass index (BMI) >25. Age, gender, year of surgery, histology, anastomotic location, and diabetes were not prognostic. Before PSM, MVA of NCR patients of factors associated with decreased AL revealed that only thoracic anastomosis was prognostic. However, this was not observed after PSM. MVA of factors associated with decreased AL in all patients revealed thoracic anastomosis, NCR, and BMI 25-30. After PSM, only distal esophageal tumors and thoracic anastomosis were prognostic for decreased AL.
Conclusion: There is no difference in the AL rate between US and NCR patients. Decreased AL rate was observed in patients with distal esophageal tumors and thoracic anastomosis.
