KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The study aimed to investigate the feasibility and safety of utilizing mediastinal drains alone following EC surgery.
- Researchers noticed the equal safety and potential pain reduction of using mediastinal drains alone in post-EC surgery.
Following esophageal cancer (EC) surgery closed thoracic drainage tubes are conventionally utilized for postoperative drainage. There’s been an increased use of thoracic mediastinal drainage (MD) in addition to closed thoracic drains.
Yu Li and the team aimed to assess the feasibility and safety of solely employing mediastinal drains following EC surgery.
Researchers performed an inclusive analysis of 134 patients who underwent EC surgery between June 2020 and June 2023. Among them, 34 patients received closed thoracic drainage (CTD), 58 patients received closed thoracic drainage combined with mediastinal drainage (CTD-MD), and 42 patients received postoperative MD. General condition, incidence of postoperative pulmonary complications, postoperative NRS score, and postoperative anastomotic leakage were compared using Mann-Whitney U tests, Welch’s t tests, one-way ANOVA, chi-square tests, and Fisher’s exact tests.
No significant differences were observed in the incidence of postoperative hyperthermia, peak leukocytes, total drainage, hospitalization days, and postoperative pulmonary complications between the MD group and the other two groups. However, patients in the MD group experienced notably lower postoperative pain than those in the other two groups. Moreover, abnormal postoperative drainage fluid was detectable early in the MD group. Additionally, there was no significant change in the incidence of postoperative anastomotic leakage and the mortality rate of patients after anastomotic leakage occurrence in the MD group compared to the other two groups.
The study concluded that utilizing mediastinal drain alone following EC surgery demonstrated equal safety compared to conventional methods. Moreover, it showed a significant decrease in postoperative pain, suggesting its potential as a viable alternative to closed thoracic drains in clinical practice.
This study was sponsored by the Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi Province.
Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38702817/
Li Y, Zhang D, Zhao D, (2024). “Feasibility of utilizing mediastinal drains alone following esophageal cancer surgery: a retrospective study.” World J Surg Oncol. 2024 May 3;22(1):118. doi: 10.1186/s12957-024-03400-x. PMID: 38702817; PMCID: PMC11067194.
