Adenocarcinoma of the cardia: treatment by thoracoabdominal R3 radical gastrectomy

The complications and mortality rate of R3 radical gastrectomy using a left thoracoabdominal approach were studied in 38 patients with adenocarcinoma of the gastric cardia. There were two hospital deaths and two anastomotic leaks. There was a high rate of complications following surgery (subphrenic abscess, eight; severe chest infection, five; aspiration pneumonia, two; wound infection, two; and reactivation of tuberculosis, one). The hospital stay ranged from 11 to 39 days (median 21 days). Thirty-five patients had microscopic evidence of serosal involvement (S2). Thirty-three of the patients had lymph node metastases and 17 patients had involvement of N2 nodes. Four patients had histological evidence of residual suture line tumour, but only two of these returned with recurrence at the anastomosis. Follow-up (median 3 years) revealed that splenic artery nodal involvement (N2) did not worsen the prognosis after radical resection. Despite a high complication rate, thoracoabdominal radical gastrectomy is associated with an acceptable perioperative mortality rate, adequate symptom palliation and encouraging medium-term survival. The left thoracoabdominal approach gives excellent exposure for radical resection of cancer of the gastric cardia and should be the procedure of choice for curative resection of this tumour.