Learning Curve and Associated Prognosis of Minimally Invasive McKeown Esophagectomy

Short-term outcomes of robot-assisted versus conventional minimally invasive esophagectomy for esophageal cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis of 18,187 patients

The role of robotic surgery in the curative-intent treatment of esophageal cancer patients is yet to be defined. To compare short-term outcomes between conventional minimally invasive (cMIE) and robot-assisted minimally invasive esophagectomy (RAMIE) in esophageal cancer patients. PubMed, Web of Science and Cochrane Library were systematically searched. The included studies compared short-term outcomes between cMIE and RAMIE. Individual risk of bias was calculated using the MINORS and RoB2 scales. There were no statistically significant differences between RAMIE and cMIE regarding conversion to open procedure, mean number of harvested lymph nodes in the mediastinum, abdomen and along the right recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN), 30- and 90-day mortality rates, chyle leakage, RLN palsy as well as cardiac and infectious complication rates. Estimated blood loss (MD - 71.78 mL, p < 0.00001), total number of harvested lymph nodes (MD 2.18 nodes, p < 0.0001) and along the left RLN (MD 0.73 nodes, p = 0.03), pulmonary complications (RR 0.70, p = 0.001) and length of hospital stay (MD - 3.03 days, p < 0.0001) are outcomes that favored RAMIE. A significantly shorter operating time (MD 29.01 min, p = 0.004) and a lower rate of anastomotic leakage (RR 1.23, p = 0.0005) were seen in cMIE. RAMIE has indicated to be a safe and feasible alternative to cMIE, with a tendency towards superiority in blood loss, lymph node yield, pulmonary complications and length of hospital stay. There was significant heterogeneity among studies for some of the outcomes measured. Further studies are necessary to confirm these results and overcome current limitations.

Learning curve in relation to health-related quality of life in long-term, disease free survivors after McKeown minimally invasive esophagectomy

BACKGROUND

The potential impact of learning curve on long-term health-related quality of life (QoL) after esophagectomy for cancer has not been investigated. The aim of this article is to investigate the relationship between learning curve for McKeown minimally invasive esophagectomy (MIE) and health-related quality of life (QoL) in long-term, disease free survivors up to 10 years after esophageal cancer resection.

METHODS

Esophageal cancer patients who underwent McKeown MIE between 2009 and 2019 were identified in which 280 who were free of disease at the time of survey and completed health-related QoL and symptom questionnaires, including EORTC QLQ-C30, EORTC QLQ-OES18, and Digestive Symptom Questionnaire. Patients were assessed in 3 cohorts according to the learning phases of expertise reported by our previous study: initial phase; plateau phase, and; experienced phase.

RESULTS

Median time from operation to survey was 5.8 years (interquartile range 4.6-8.2). The QLQ-C30 mean scores of functional scales, and symptom scales of respiratory and digestive systems including dyspnea (P = 0.006), shortness of breath (P = 0.003), and dysphagia (P = 0.031) were significantly better in experienced phase group. Furthermore, in the subgroup analyses for patients without postoperative major complications, patients in the initial learning phase remained suffering from more symptoms of dyspnea (P = 0.040) and shortness of breath (P = 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Esophageal cancer patients undergoing McKeown MIE in initial learning phase tend to suffer from a deterioration in long-term health-related QoL and higher symptomatic burden as compared to experienced learning phase, which did not improved over time and warranted more attention.

Impact of perioperative decreased serum albumin level on anastomotic leakage in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by minimally invasive esophagectomy

BACKGROUND

Anastomotic leakage (AL) is a severe complication following esophagectomy with high mortality. Perioperative decreased serum albumin level is considered a predictive of AL, however, its impact on AL incidence in patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NCT) followed by minimally invasive esophagectomy (MIE) is not well defined.

METHODS

The data of 318 consecutive esophageal cancer patients who underwent MIE were collected retrospectively from January 2021 to December 2021. The perioperative level of albumin was detected and the baseline of altering levels for albumin was established. The incidence of postoperative complications and survival rate were analyzed between groups.

RESULTS

After exclusion, 137 patients were enrolled and assigned to more decreased albumin (MA) and less decreased albumin (LA) groups. The levels of albumin descended significantly after MIE (p < 0.0001). There was no significant difference in the clinicopathologic characteristics or surgical outcomes between groups. The incidence of postoperative AL was 10.2% in MA group and 1.4% in LA group (p = 0.033). Three patients died due to AL in MA group, while no mortality was observed in LA group (p = 0.120). The rate of other postoperative complications was similar between groups. Progression-free survival (PFS) in LA group was a little higher than that in MA group, but it was no significant difference (p = 0.853). Similarly, no difference was observed in overall survival (OS) between groups (p = 0.277).

CONCLUSIONS

Severely deficient serum albumin after MIE was an indicator of AL in esophageal cancer patients treated with NCT.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

Chinese clinical trial registry: ChiCTR2200066694, registered December14th,2022. https://www.chictr.org.cn/edit.aspx?pid=185067&htm=4 .

Exploring the learning curve in minimally invasive esophagectomy: a systematic review

Minimally invasive esophagectomy (MIE) has been shown to be superior to open esophagectomy with reduced morbidity, mortality, and comparable lymph node (LN) harvest. However, MIE is technically challenging. This study aims to perform a pooled analysis on the number of cases required to surmount the learning curve (LC), i.e. NLC in MIE. PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library were systematically searched for articles from inception to June 2022. Inclusion criteria were articles that reported LC in video-assisted MIE (VAMIE) and/or robot-assisted MIE (RAMIE). Poisson means (95% confidence interval [CI]) was used to determine NLC. Negative binomial regression was used for comparative analysis. There were 41 articles with 45 data sets (n = 7755 patients). The majority of tumors were located in the lower esophagus or gastroesophageal junction (66.7%, n = 3962/5939). The majority of data sets on VAMIE (n = 16/26, 61.5%) used arbitrary analysis, while the majority of data sets (n = 14/19, 73.7%) on RAMIE used cumulative sum control chart analysis. The most common outcomes reported were overall operating time (n = 30/45) and anastomotic leak (n = 28/45). Twenty-four data sets (53.3%) reported on LN harvest. The overall NLC was 34.6 (95% CI: 30.4-39.2), 68.5 (95% CI: 64.9-72.4), 27.5 (95% CI: 24.3-30.9), and 35.9 (95% CI: 32.1-40.2) for hybrid VAMIE, total VAMIE, hybrid RAMIE, and total RAMIE, respectively. NLC was significantly lower for total RAMIE compared to total VAMIE (incidence rate ratio: 0.52, P = 0.032). Studies reporting NLC in MIE are heterogeneous. Further studies should clearly define prior surgical experiences and assess long-term oncological outcomes using non-arbitrary analysis.

Effect of pleural adhesions on short- and long-term outcomes after minimally invasive esophagectomy: a propensity score matching analysis

BACKGROUND

The extent to which the presence of pleural adhesions affects the surgical and oncological outcomes of patients undergoing McKeown minimally invasive esophagectomy (MIE) for esophageal cancer (EC) has not previously been studied.

METHODS

Data of consecutive EC patients undergoing McKeown MIE by a single surgeon in the Department of Thoracic Surgery at Daping Hospital from November 2015 to December 2020 were collected. Patients were grouped according to the presence or absence of pleural adhesions when entering the chest cavity. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to reduce selection bias from confounding factors. Kaplan-Meier was used to assess the survival differences.

RESULTS

A total of 617 consecutive EC patients underwent McKeown MIE were enrolled. There were 116 patients with pleural adhesions (Group A) and 501 patients without pleural adhesions (Group B). Patients in Group A were more likely to be older than those of patients in Group B: (66.26 vs. 63.27, P = 0.001). In addition, Group A had more patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (24.1% vs. 16.8%, P = 0.04). After propensity score matching (102 matched patients in Group A and 185 matched patients in Group B), these findings were no longer statistically significant. Postoperative pulmonary infection occurred in 57 patients in Group A and in 15 patients in Group B (53.9% vs. 13.0%, P < 0.001). In addition, the presence of pleural adhesions was significantly associated with the prolonged operation time (232 min vs. 210 min, P < .001), length of stay (12 days vs. 10 days, P = 0.001), and hydrothorax requiring drainage (12.7% vs. 5.4%, P = 0.04). However, the disease-specific survival and disease-free survival rates were comparable between the two groups (P = 0.40 and 0.13, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

The presence of pleural adhesions predicted an increased operation time, length of stay, postoperative pneumonia, and hydrothorax requiring drainage of EC patients undergoing McKeown MIE, but did not exert unfavourable effect on long-term survival.

Laparoscopic gastric dissociation using a two-port approach in minimally invasive esophagectomy

BACKGROUND

A new approach for laparoscopic gastric dissociation in minimally invasive esophagectomy (MIE) was attempted. This study aimed to evaluate the short-term outcomes, safety, and efficacy of two-port laparoscopy using the McKeown procedure.

METHODS

This retrospective study included 206 consecutive patients with esophageal cancer who underwent a modified two-port laparoscopic or the traditional five-port McKeown procedure at our institution from August 2019 to August 2021. Surgical outcomes of the two methods were compared.

RESULTS

Of the 206 patients, 106 (51.46%) underwent the modified two-port procedure, whereas 100 (48.54%) underwent the traditional five-port procedure. Subsequently, 182 propensity score-matched patients were compared. No significant differences were observed in laparoscopic operative time, blood loss during laparoscopic surgery, number of dissected lymph nodes, and pain score on postoperative day 1 between the two groups. The rate of complication and postoperative length of hospital stay did not differ significantly between the two groups. The total hospitalization cost also did not differ significantly between the two groups (p = 0.325). No postoperative deaths occurred in either group.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings demonstrate that laparoscopic gastric dissociation using the two-port approach in MIE is a safe and effective procedure, with short-term outcomes comparable to those of the traditional five-port procedure in patients with esophageal cancer. Larger studies with longer follow-up duration are warranted.