A Prospective Longitudinal Study Examining The Impact On Short Term Quality Of Life Of Hand Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgical Esophagectomy In Patients With Esophageal Cancer

Objectives:To evaluate the impact of Hand Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery and Ivor-Lewis surgery on short term Quality of life(QL) of patients with Esophageal Cancer. Methods:From June 2004 to October 2005,41 patients with esophageal cancer from Shandong Provincial Hospital,China, were initially regarded as potential candidates for our study.Of these patients,2 patients had to been converted to Ivor-Lewis thoracotomy due to heavy Pleural adhesion or local advanced cancer invading primary bronchus.As a result,a total of 39 patients were available for analysis,including 21 patients who underwent HVATS esophagectomy(HVATS group) and 18 patients who underwent Ivor-Lewis esophagectomy(Normal group).QL was assessed using Chinese versions of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLQ)-C30 and EORTC QLQ-OES18. The use of these questionnaires in this study protocol was permitted by Quality of Life Unit, EORTC Data Center.AlI patients completed these...