[Risk assessment and preliminary treatment in patients with esophageal cancer]

In 36 patients who underwent surgery for carcinoma of the oesophagus (21 patients subjected to blunt mediastinal dissection, 15 to thoracotomy) the preoperative status was determined by means of cardiopulmonary stepwise diagnosis and an individually adapted concomitant therapy was performed. A scheme for preoperative risk assessment which is equally important for both methods was evolved from the postoperative changes of VC, FEV1 and the preoperative values for RV/TLC, FEV1/VC, paO2 and paCO2 after retrospective analysis of the individual complication rates (60% cardiopulmonary). The 30-day lethality was 11%.