[Experimental study on the lymph flow of the esophagus by injecting cuttlefish particles into the esophageal wall]

Cuttlefish particles which have an affinity with lymphatic pathways are useful for investigating the lymph flow from the esophagus, because they can be distinguished from anthracosis in the thoracic lymph nodes by means of melanine breeching method. Four days after injecting the cuttlefish particles into the esophageal walls of 103 mongrel dogs, intrathoracic and abdominal lymph nodes were dissected and examined histologically to know how much of the injected particles have migrated into lymph nodes. In case of spreading of injected particles limited to the muscle layer, the staining rate per number of cases in the right uppermost mediastinal nodes was higher when the particles were injected into the upper and middle esophagus (75%) than into the lower esophagus (0%, p < 0.002). The rate of staining in the lymph nodes along the left gastric artery was higher when the particles were injected into the anal side (100%) than into the oral side of the canter of middle esophagus (14%, p < 0.001). If these situations were duplicated in humans, lymph node dissection for thoracic esophageal cancer should reasonably be considered from the findings on tumor location and depth of invasion by the tumor.