Morbid-Mortality and Treatment of Complications

Morbidity can be mainly divided in medical and surgical, with respiratory complications being the most frequent medical complications, occurring in 21–27 % of patients, and anastomotic leaks representing the main surgical complication, with percentages that stand between 3.7 % and 14 %. Other notable complications are atrial arrhythmias, chylothorax, and necrosis of the gastric conduit. Recently Low established the esophagectomy complications consensus group (ECCG) among 21 high volume centers worldwide. The group is studying a system for defining and recording perioperative complications after esophagectomy. This could result in a standardization of international data collection on morbidity, to facilitate the interpretation and the comparison of data in the literature.