Salvage Esophagectomy in Advanced Esophageal Cancer

Even through the esophageal cancer has innumerable treatment options, its prognosis is still unsettled. Because esophagectomy is rarely curative, others therapies, such as chemoradiation emerging in advanced disease followed or not surgery. The salvage esophagectomy is an alternative for those patients with recurrent disease. Thus in this chapter the intend is show the results of the salvage esophagectomy in patients with esophageal cancer who had previously undergone chemoradiation and discussion about the morbidity of this surgical tecnic. Too, its show the our experience in 72 patients with unresectabeled esophageal carcinoma were treated with chemorradiation followed by salvage esophagectomy by trans-toracic approach. Patients was evaluated with regard pos-operative complications and disease free survival. The major complications was deiscence at the level of the of the anastomosis esophagogastric cervical, presents in 16 patients (22,2%) and pulmonar infection in 23 patients (31,9%). In 53 patients that were available for a five years follow-up, was a rate of 43,3% (23 patients) of disease free survival. Thus with the results its conclude that the salvage esophagectomy seems to be valuable in cases without any other therapeutic options.