Precautions for avoiding pulmonary morbidity after esophagectomy

Pulmonary morbidity is the most common complication after esophagectomy. Importantly, it is the main cause of surgery-related mortality and possibly adversely affects the long-term outcome after surgery in patients with esophageal cancer. There is considerable accumulated evidence on multidisciplinary approaches to reduce post-operative pulmonary morbidity. A comprehensive review of the precautionary measures that have so far been shown to be effective in previous literature is of utmost importance. We herein update and summarize the perioperative and surgical approaches to diminish pulmonary morbidity. Pre-operative smoking cessation, respiratory rehabilitation, maintaining oral hygiene, perioperative nutritional intervention, enforcement of less invasive surgery, perioperative administration of steroid, and total management by a multidisciplinary team could be the key factors contributing to reduction in pulmonary morbidity.