Relationship of oral care and postoperative complications in esophageal cancer patients

Abstract

There is a high incidence of pneumonia after esophageal cancer surgery, and development of recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis is a risk factor for postoperative pneumonia. Oral care can help prevent development of pneumonia during the early postoperative period after esophageal cancer surgery. We studied the relationship of oral care and incidence of postoperative pneumonia in 86 patients (77 males and 9 females aged 40 to 83 years, mean age: 64.0 years) who underwent right thoracolaparotomy for esophageal cancer in our Department of Surgery from January 2007 to December 2009. Pneumonia developed postoperatively in 6 of 25 patients with recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis and in 4 of 61 patients without it, this difference in incidence being statistically significant (p value＝0.022). Postoperative pneumonia developed in 6 of 17 patients with recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis who did not receive oral care, but in none of the 8 patients who did. These findings suggest that recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis after esophageal cancer surgery is indeed a risk factor for development of postoperative pneumonia, and that this can be reduced by oral care.