Computed Tomography (CT) for Preoperative Evaluation of Thoracic Esophageal Carcinoma

One hundred and twenty eight patients with thoracic esophageal carcinomas encountered clinically were admitted to this study. In the present study, we diagnosed the metastasis of esophageal carcinoma to cervical and superior mediastinal lymph nodes, and its invasion into the neighboring structures such as trachea and bronchus based on CT scan. We mentioned the usefulness and limitation of diagnosis by CT. Diagnostic accuracy of the metastasis to lymph nodes on CT was 93.3%. For lymph nodes more than 1cm in diameter, correct diagnosis by CT was made in 96.0%. About 25% of large lymph nodes in the area of 107 were complicated with anthracosis, so it seemed difficult to diagnose the presence of metastasis by CT. Diagnostic accuracy of the direct invasion was 99.2% in the trachea and 99.2% in the bronchus. Accordingly, CT scan was a useful method to know the degree of the tumor invasion in these regions.