Postoperative Complication Assessments of Different Reconstruction Procedures after Total Pharyngolaryngoesophagectomy: Tubular Gastric Pull-Up versus Whole Gastric Pull-Up

Hypopharynx carcinoma tends to be diagnosed at advanced stage and usually has a poor prognosis because of the high incidence of submucosal spreading and lymphatic metastasis. Total pharyngolaryngoesophagectomy (PLE) is mostly used as a curative intervention for this deadly disease, and a commonly used reconstruction method after PLE is gastric pull-up, which could be further divided into tubular gastric pull-up and whole gastric pull-up procedures. Aiming to achieve a precise guidance on optimal reconstruction method after PLE, the present study evaluated the postoperative complications involving in different gastric pull-up procedures in patients with hypopharynx cancer. A total of 52 consecutive patients with hypopharyngeal cancer who underwent total PLE with gastric pull-up reconstruction in Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital between 1996 and 2014 were analyzed in this study. Of these patients, 28 underwent tubular gastric pull-up reconstruction procedure (Group A), whereas 24 underwent whole gastric pull-up reconstruction procedure (Group B). We compared the postoperative complications between these two groups retrospectively. Postoperative anastomotic fistulas occurred in three patients in Group A (3/28) versus eight patients in Group B (8/24), leading to an incidence rate of 10.71 and 33.33 per cent, respectively. The incidence of intrathoracic stomach syndrome was 21.43 per cent in Group A (6/28) versus 58.33 per cent in Group B (14/24), and the incidence of reflux was 35.71 per cent in Group A (10/28) versus 66.67 per cent in Group B (16/24). All of the above postoperative complications exhibited statistical differences between two groups (P ≤ 0.05). This retrospective observation study suggests that compared with whole gastric pull-up, tubular gastric pull-up is a better reconstruction procedure of choice after PLE, evidenced by reduced incidences of postoperative anastomotic fistula, intrathoracic stomach syndrome, and reflux.