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April 30th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda MONDAY, April 30 (HealthDay News) — Besides being easier on the
patient, minimally invasive surgery to remove the esophagus of patients
with esophageal cancer can also greatly reduce the risk of lung infection
compared to traditional open surgery, a new study finds.
Dutch researchers also found that patients who undergo this
less-invasive procedure have much shorter hospital stays and a better
short-term quality of life than those who have open surgery, which
requires cutting through a patient’s chest.
One U.S. expert was impressed with the findings. The study “goes a
long way to encouraging esophageal surgeons to seriously consider
minimally invasive surgery for their patients with surgically resectable
[removable] esophageal cancers,” said Dr. Jonathan Aviv, clinical director
of the Voice and Swallowing Center at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New
York City.
Removal of part of or the entire esophagus (a procedure called
esophagectomy) is the mainstay of esophageal cancer treatment. This study
compared open esophagectomy and minimally invasive esophagectomy.
The minimally invasive procedure was first used two decades ago but
this is the first study to compare minimally invasive and open
esophagectomy, according to Miguel Cuesta, of the VU University Medical
Centre in Amsterdam, and colleagues.
The researchers looked at the outcomes of 56 patients who had open
surgery and 59 patients who had the minimally invasive procedure. In the
two weeks after surgery, lung (or pulmonary) infections occurred in 29
percent of those who had open surgery but only 9 percent of those who had
minimally invasive surgery.
Overall, 34 percent of the patients who had open surgery developed a
lung infection, compared with 12 percent of those who underwent minimally
invasive surgery, the study found.
The researchers also noted that patients who had minimally invasive
surgery had less blood loss, far shorter hospital stays, and better
quality of life (much less pain and vocal-cord paralysis).
Importantly, minimally invasive surgery was as effective as open
surgery, the study authors concluded in the report published online April
30 in The Lancet.
“If these results can be confirmed in other settings, minimally
invasive esophagectomy could truly become the standard of care,” Simon
Law, of the University of Hong Kong, China, wrote in an accompanying
editorial.
For his part, Aviv also believes that the study “underscores the need
for continued early screening of patients with symptoms suggestive of
esophageal cancer — cough and hoarseness, likely even more important than
‘typical’ gastrointestinal symptoms such as heartburn and
regurgitation.”
Aviv, who is also clinical professor of otolaryngology at Mount Sinai
Medical Center, added that “esophageal cancer both in western Europe and
here in the USA is the only cancer that is markedly increasing in
incidence the past 30 years.”
More information
The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about esophageal cancer.
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