TOTALLY MINIMALLY INVASIVE ESOPHAGECTOMY 3D HD FOR THORACIC ESOPHAGEAL CANCER AFTER NEOADJUVANT CHEMORADIOTHERAPY

Esophagectomy is a major surgical procedure with morbidity, and mortality related to the patient'scondition, stage of the disease at the moment of diagnosis, complementary treatments and surgicalexperience of the surgeon. Minimally invasive esophagectomy (MIE) may lead to a reduction inperioperative morbidity and mortality with an acceptable quality of life and similar oncologic resultsto an open approach. We present an experience of the Center of Excellence in Esophageal Surgeryregarding totally MIE through thoracolaparoscopic modified McKeown triple approach, followedby esophageal reconstruction by gastric intrathoracic pull-up and cervical esophagogastricanastomosis and feeding jejunostomy in a patient with thoracic esophageal cancer who underwentpreoperative neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. The short-term outcomes of the totally minimallyinvasive esophagectomy procedure were very encouraging. The overall operative times were:thoracoscopic - 120 minutes, laparoscopic - 130 minutes and cervical - 50 minutes with a total of360 minutes. The intraoperative blood loss was 200 ml. The postoperative outcome was favorablewith early feeding on the jejunostomy. The control of cervical anastomosis was performed in the 6thday postoperative and the patient was discharged in the 10th day postoperative without anysymptomatology. At the first and third-month follow-up was not reported any postoperativecomplications. The totally minimally invasive approach using advanced technology of endoscopicsurgery allowed for this patient a simple postoperative evolution, no major complications and agood recovery after extensive surgery. The solid experience in open esophageal surgery ofUpper Gastro-Intestinal surgeons provides a fast learning curve of complex minimally invasivesurgical procedures with reduced perioperative morbidity. Long-term follow-up can confirm theresults from the literature regarding the survival, which is expected to be for these patients atleast equivalent with outcomes after open esophagectomy.