A CASE OF MITRAL VALVE REPLASEMENT WITH LEFT THORACOTOMY AFTER OPERATION FOR AN ESOPHAGEAL CANCER

Abstract

Among gastrointestinal malignancies esophageal canncer commonly occurs in aged population, and it can not be said that the cancer always has faborable prognosis. For this we rarely encounter a case necessitating thoracotomy after operation for an esophageal cancer. In this paper such a rare case is described.
A 55-year-old male patient, who had been operated on for early esophageal cancer 1.5 years before, had cardiac insufficiencies associated with mitral valve regurgitation. Mitral valve replacement with left thoracotomy was performed to avoid difficulty in ablation and complication in median or right thoracotomy. Left thoracotomy is not ordinary for open heart surgery using extracorporeal circulation system now. We performed aortic, right ventricular outflow and right femoral vein cannulation, and had comparatively well surgical field. The progress of operation was satisfactory. Distant absolute curative operation result for early esophageal cancer is gradually getting better in these days. We think that operation for heart disease following absolute curative operation for esophageal cancer should be performed in a patient who has no sign of recurrence of cancer, if the quarity of life is promised for him or her.