[Palliative surgical treatment of cancer of the esophagus]

Palliative surgery, including cleaning resection, colon or stomach bypass, intubation or fistula is all one can offer to the majority of patients suffering from oesophageal carcinoma due to an usually advanced tumor stage at the time of diagnosis. The primary goal is to prevent or resolve dysphagia. A prolongation of survival time can - with the exception of cleaning resection - not be expected by these procedures. The average survival time was 9.4 months after cleaning resection and 4.7 months after other palliative procedures in our series. If a cleaning resection is not possible, the endoscopic implantation of an endotube is the treatment of choice because of its low mortality and morbidity.