The surgical management and outcome of oesophageal cancer in Addis Ababa

One hundred and forty two patients with oesophageal cancer seen from 1992-1996 at a surgical unit of Tikur Anbessa Hospital (TAH), Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine were studied retrospectively. It represented 13.8% of all malignant rumours that were seen in the department during the study period. Seventy four patients (52%) were explored and thirty four (46%) of-them had resection, 27 (80%) had locally invasive tumours). Of the thirty four patients that were explored, thirty had an Ivor-Lewis type of resection, using stomach tube through the right side of the chest, and four had partial gastero-oesophagectomy with gastero-oesophagostomy in the left side of the chest. The post operative mortality was 21 (28%). The commonest causes of death were sepsis secondary to anastomotic leak and pneumonia. Follow up was possible for eighteen patients, eleven of them for seven months and the rest for seventeen months, all were doing well. Sixteen patients could not be traced.