Abstract
We report a case of secondary reconstructive surgery using a thin tube in gastric obstruction due to delayed blood flow in the free jejunum graft after cervical esophageal cancer.
A 70–year–old woman undergoing chemoradiotherapy for cervical esophageal cancer in 2002 and bilateral cervical lymph node dissection in 2003 reporting hoarseness in April 2008 was found to have recurrent cervical esophageal cancer, necessitating total laryngectomy, cervical esophageal resection, and free jejunum graft interpositioning. Despite uneventful postoperative progress and mid–June discharge, skin over the right tracheal tunnel broke, resulting in pus discharge within a month and a gradually narrowed anastomosis. Based on a diagnosis of partial necrosis and free jejunum graft narrowing due to delayed blood flow disturbance, we resected the graft and conducted thoracic esophagectomy, hypopharynx anastomosis to the stomach via a posterior mediastinal approach, and enterostomy in late August. Postoperative progress was favorable, and the woman was discharged on postoperative day 30.
