The proposed system for defining and recording perioperative complications associated with esophagectomy provides an infrastructure to standardize international data collection and facilitate future comparative studies and quality improvement projects.

Combining impedance and pH monitoring improves the detection and characterization of GER. This study characterizes the frequency, duration, and extent of reflux in health and provides normal values for 24-h Imp-pH for future comparison with GERD patients.

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ObjectiveThe purpose of the study was to test the hypothesis that cardiac mucosa, carditis, and specialized intestinal metaplasia at an endoscopically normal-appearing cardia are manifestations of gastroesophageal reflux disease. Summary Background DataIn the absence of esophageal mucosal injury, the diagnosis of gastroesophageal reflux disease currently rests on 24-hour pH monitoring. Histologic examination of the esophagus is not useful. The recent identification of specialized intestinal metaplasia at the cardia, along with the observation that it occurs in inflamed cardiac mucosa, led the authors to focus on the type and condition of the mucosa at the gastroesophageal junction and its relation to gastroesophageal reflux disease. MethodsThree hundred thirty-four consecutive patients with symptoms of foregut disease, no evidence of columnar-lined esophagus, and no history of gastric or esophageal surgery were evaluated by 1) endoscopic biopsies above, at, and below the gastroesophageal junction; 2) esophageal motility; and 3) 24-hour esophageal pH monitoring. The patients were divided into groups depending on the histologic presence of cardiac epithelium with and without inflammation or associated intestinal metaplasia. Markers of gastroesophageal reflux disease were compared between groups (i.e., lower esophageal sphincter characteristics, esophageal acid exposure, the presence of endoscopic erosive esophagitis, and hiatal hernia). ResultsWhen cardiac epithelium was found, it was inflamed in 96% of the patients. The presence of cardiac epithelium and carditis was associated with deterioration of lower esophageal sphincter characteristics and increased esophageal acid exposure. Esophagitis occurred more commonly in patients with carditis whose sphincter, on manometry, was structurally 522

Long-term survival from adenocarcinoma of the esophagus can be achieved in more than half the patients who undergo en bloc resection. One third of patients with lymph node involvement survived 5 years. Local control is excellent after en bloc resection. The extent of disease associated with tumors confined to the mucosa and submucosa provides justification for more limited and less morbid resections.