Improved quality of life in patients with adenocarcinoma of esophagogastric junction after gastric tube reconstruction.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: This study aims to compare postoperative quality of life (QOL) in adenocarcinoma of esophagogastric junction (AEG) patients who underwent different reconstructions after proximal gastrectomy.

METHODOLOGY: A total of 158 consecutive AEG patients (Siewert type II/III) between January 2009 and February 2012 were included in this study. Eighty-seven patients underwent gastric tube reconstruction (anastomosis between tubular stomach and esophagus), and 71 patients had traditional direct anastomosis (anastomosis between gastric remnant and esophagus) after proximal gastrectomy. Quality of life was evaluated using the Chinese versions of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ) Core-30 and EORTC QLQ-STO22 at pre-operation as well as one and two years post-operation.

RESULTS

Patients with gastric tube reconstruction had better quality of life than the traditional group patients with respect to global health status, emotional function, cognitive function, nausea and vomiting, reflux, and anxiety scales at one year post-surgery. At 2 years after surgery, reflux as well as nausea and vomiting remained higher in the traditional group than in the gastric group. In addition, the traditional group exhibited a higher score for body image scale than the gastric tube group.

CONCLUSIONS

AEG patients with gastric tube anastomosis had better a QOL than traditional direct anastomosis patients during the two year follow-up.