[Treatment of squamous-cell carcinoma of the eosophagus]

Only 125 of 287 cases of carcinoma of the esophagus (43%), diagnosed between 1. 1. 1967 and 31. 12. 1980, were resectable. "Curative" resection was possible in only 40 patients. Preferred surgical technique was a one-session resection and pedicle reconstruction of the stomach supplied by the right gastroepiploic artery (99 cases). Post-operative mortality was due largely to pulmonary complications, 60% of all cases by the abdominal-thoracic approach, 7% when thoracotomy only had been performed. Five-year survival rate after "curative" resection was 10%.