The clinical utility of RFA in esophageal and cardia cancer patients with severe malignant obstruction.

Malignant obstruction of esophageal and cardia cancer greatly affects the prognosis and life quality of patients. However, no better regimens have been reported up to now. In recent years, radiofrequency ablation (RFA) has been prospectively proven in the management of some tumors. So, we investigated the impact of RFA on the malignant obstruction of esophageal and cardia cancer. In this study, we evaluated the operation duration, ablation duration, immediate compilations, etc., and followed up for 12 months. Our findings showed that there existed no technical problems in all 22 patients with a mean operation duration of 58 min and mean ablation duration of 23 min. No complication was observed in addition to postoperative low pressure in one patient and retrostenal pain in another patient. Importantly, all 22 patients obtained complete remission with normal diet and felt no sense of obstruction. Mean hospitalization time was 3 days and then the 12-month follow-up continued. To our relief, re-obstruction was not observed in all patients for 2 months. In conclusion, the entire effect of RFA was satisfactory, and patients can obtain a better life quality, less pains, and complications. So RFA should be advocated and greatly investigated by more institutes and hospitals.