• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.39 no.12 s.269
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• pp.920-926
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• 2006

Background: Mortality and morbidity of anastomotic complications after esophagectomy have gradually decreased in recent years. However, swallowing difficulties and reflux symptoms after esophagogastrostomy continue to be a burden jeopardizing the quality of life. In the present study, we evaluated the quality of esophagogastrostomy by analyzing anastomotic stenosis and reflux esophagitis. Material and Method: A retrospective analysis was made in 74 patients who underwent esophagogastrostomy after esophagectomy by one surgeon between January 1995 and December 2004. 53 patients of them received endoscopic examination during follow-up($29{\pm}23.6$ months, range $5{\sim}111$ months). Reflux esophagitis and stenosis at anastomostic site were analyzed according to the techniques and locations of esophagogastrostomy. Result: The median age at the time of repair was $60.3{\pm}8.87$ years(range $39{\sim}81$ years). 23 patients received a hand-sewn esophagogastric anastomosis and 30 patients a circular stapled one. There was no significant statistical difference in terms of anastomotic stenosis(p=0.64) and reflux esophagitis(p=0.41) between the two groups. Cervical anastomosis was peformed in 26 patients and intrathoracic anastomosis in 27 patients. No significant statistical difference in anastomotic stenosis between the two groups was found(p=0.44), but reflux esophagitis was noted in 3 patients in the cervical anastomosis group and 14 patients in the intrathoracic anastomosis group(p=0.003). Conclusion: Cervical anastomosis was supposed to have a better quality of esophagogastrostomy by lowering the risk of reflux esophagitis. In the future, the comprehensive study including a patient's subjective symptom and Barrett's metaplasia should be performed in larger cases.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.104-109
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• 2008

Purpose: To investigate the clinicopathlogical characteristics and the surgical methods for gastric submucosal tumors in Korea, the Information Committee of the Korean Gastric Cancer Association performed a nationwide survey. Materials and Methods: Data on 878 patients who underwent resection from 2005 to 2006 were collected from medical records obtained from 47 institutes. Diagnosis, demographics, symptoms, tumor factors (location, size, degree of malignancy) and operative factors (surgicalmethod and approach, mortality) were analyzed. Results: Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) were the most common cancers (n=586, 66.8%), followed by leiomyomas (n=97, 11.1%), schwannomas (n=70, 8.0%), ectopic pancreas (n=67, 7.8%) and carcinoids (n=16, 1.8%). The mean age of patients was 56.0 years and the male to female ratio was 1:1.18. Only 40.9% of the patients had symptoms at the time of diagnosis, such as abdominal pain, dyspepsia and bleeding. Gastric submucosal tumors were most frequently located in the upper third of the stomach and 55.4% of the GISTs (n=319) and 84.5% of the leiomyomas (n=84.5%) were located in the upper third of the stomach. Wedge resection (n=726, 82.8%) was the most common operative method, and laparoscopic surgery was performed in 388 patients (44.2%). Only one patient (0.1%) died within 30 days of surgery. A total of 115 patients withGISTs (21.1%, 115/544) had a high risk of malignancy and 41 patients (8.3%, 45/495) received adjuvant imatinib mesylate therapy. Conclusion: The survey showed that about two-thirds of the patients with a gastric submuscoal tumor (SMT) had a GIST, and about one-half of the patients underwent laparoscopic resection. These data presented in the nationwide survey could be used as a fundamental resource for gastric submucosal tumors in Korea.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.5 no.4 s.20
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• pp.238-245
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• 2005

Purpose: Ghrelin, produced primarily in the gastrointestinal tract, including the stomach, has been reported to reflect nutritional status and to control homeostasis by influencing food intake and adiposity. The purpose of this study is to evaluate nutritional status, as well as plasma and gastric tissue ghrelin levels, in patients with gastric cancer who underwent a gastrectomy. Materials and Methods: Eighty patients were analyzed by the degree of weight loss $(weight\;loss{\geq}5%\;or\;<5%)$ and the extent of gastrectomy (subtotal or total gastrectomy). Blood samples were collected from all patients preoperatively and postoperatively especially at seven days. Gastric tissues, including tumor and normal tissues, were obtained from the resected stomach. levels of plasma and tissue ghrelin were measured with a commercial ELISA kit. Results: There were no significant differences in the clinical characteristics and ghrelin levels of plasma, gastric tumor tissue and normal tissue by the degree of weight loss. The ghrelin levels in plasma and tumor tissue showed no correlations with each other while the ghrelin level in tumor tissue was significantly lower than that in normal tissue. The degree of cellular differentiation also had an association with ghrelin production. A gastrectomy proved to decrease significantly plasma ghrelin levels, body mass index, and biochemical markers, regardless of the extent of gastric resection. Conclusion: These results show that gastric cancer affects the production of ghrelin in the gastric mucosa and that ghrelin is mainly produced in stomach even though it could be partially covered by endogenous ghrelin from other organs following a gastrectomy. However, we should further investigate which other factors have an impact on energy consumption, ghrelin secretion, and changes in ghrelin levels after a gastrectomy.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.348-348
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• 1997

A 48 year old man, has been suffering from a growing chondrosarcoma of sternum which has deeply invading the anterior mediastinum: He underwent wide resection of the chest wall tumor including a 4 cm free margin of normal tissue on all portions. The tumor as 15 × 16× 10cm in size arising from sternum and include both proximal one third of the clavicle and the 1 st, 2nd, and 3rd coital cartilages. The resected skeletal defect in the anterior wall was very large after wide resection of the'tumor and reconstructed due to paradoxical chest wall movement with sandwich like method of double over lapping Marlex mesh and methylmethacreylate, and steel wires. The soft tissue reconstructive procedure was dont with myocutaneous flap transposition use of pectoralis muscle. But the patient go infected with tuberculosis in the mediastinum two months after the operation. We had removed all of previously inserted prosthetics and performed curettage and drainage. Recently we experienced a case with giant chondrosarcoma of the sternum associated with tuberculous mediastinitis. The patient had an uneventful postoperative course and was discharged with adjuvant treatment such as antituberculous medication for 1 year.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.248-252
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• 1997

A 48 year old man, has been suffering from a growing chondrosarcoma of sternum which has deeply invading the anterior mediastinum: He underwent wide resection of the chest wall tumor including a 4 cm free margin of normal tissue on all portions. The tumor as 15 $\times$ 16$\times$ 10cm in size arising from sternum and include both proximal one third of the clavicle and the 1 st, 2nd, and 3rd coital cartilages. The resected skeletal defect in the anterior wall was very large after wide resection of the'tumor and reconstructed due to paradoxical chest wall movement with sandwich like method of double over lapping Marlex mesh and methylmethacreylate, and steel wires. The soft tissue reconstructive procedure was dont with myocutaneous flap transposition use of pectoralis muscle. But the patient go infected with tuberculosis in the mediastinum two months after the operation. We had removed all of previously inserted prosthetics and performed curettage and drainage. Recently we experienced a case with giant chondrosarcoma of the sternum associated with tuberculous mediastinitis. The patient had an uneventful postoperative course and was discharged with adjuvant treatment such as antituberculous medication for 1 year.

• Journal of Digestive Cancer Research
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.40-44
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• 2018

A 77-year-old man presented with abdominal discomfort and was diagnosed as Borrmann type 3 advanced gastric cancer with multiple lymph node metastases. An abdominal computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) showed AGC, clinical stage IIIC (T4aN3M0). We started neo-adjuvant chemotherapy with FOLFOX (5-fluorouracil (5-FU))+Leucovorin+Oxaliplatin). After 3 cycles of FOLFOX chemotherapy, follow-up endoscopy showed remarkable improvement. Primary lesion and metastatic lymph nodes decreased size on follow up computed tomography (CT). The patient underwent radical total gastrectomy with esophagojejunostomy and histopathology revealed no remnant malignant cells at previous primary cancer lesion. The patient has currently completed his 3 cycle of adjuvant chemotherapy without recurrence. After an abdominal CT response assessment, further course of therapy will be decided.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.27-34
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• 2008

Purpose: Many recent studies have reported on the feasibility and usefulness of laparoscopy assisted distal gastrectomy (LADG) for treating early gastric cancer. On the other hand, there has been few reports about laparoscopy assisted total gastrectomy (LATG) because upper located gastric cancer is relatively rare and the surgical technique is more difficult than that for LADG, We now present our procedure and results of performing LATG for the gastric cancer located in the upper or middle portion of the stomach. Materials and Methods: From Jan 2005 to Sep 2007, 96 patients underwent LATG by four surgeons at the Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea. Among them, 48 consecutive patients who were operated on by asingle surgeon were analyzed with respect to the clinicopathological features, the surgical results and the postoperative courses with using the prospectively collected laparoscopy surgery data. Results: There was no conversion to open surgery during LATG. For all the reconstructions, Roux-en Y esophago-jejunostomy and D1+beta lymphadenectomy were the standard procedures. The mean operation time was $212{\pm}67$ minutes. The mean total number of retrieved lymph nodes was $28.9{\pm}10.54$ (range: $12{\sim}64$) and all the patients had a clear proximal resection margin in their final pathologic reports. The mean time to passing gas, first oral feeding and discharge from the hospital was 2.98, 3.67 and 7.08 days, respectively. There were 5 surgical complications and 2 non-surgical complications for 5 (10.4%) patients, and there was no mortality. None of the patients needed operation because of complications and they recovered with conservative treatments. The mean operation time remained constant after 20 cases and so a learning curve was present. The morbidity rate was not different between the two periods, but the postoperative course was significantly better after the learning curve. Analysis of the factors contributing to the postoperative morbidity, with using logistic regression analysis, showed that the 8MI is the only contributing factor forpostoperative complications (P=0.029, HR=2.513, 95% CI=1.097-5.755). Conclusions: LATG with regional lymph node dissection for upper and middle early gastric cancer is considered to be a safe, feasible method that showed an excellent postoperative course and acceptable morbidity. BMI should be considered in the patient selection at the beginning period because of the impact of the BMI on the postoperative morbidity.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.193-199
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• 2007

Purpose: Combined resection of an invaded organ in advanced gastric cancer (AGC) with infiltration of adjacent organs is essential to achieve R0 resection. However, when the tumor invades the head of the pancreas or duodenum, R0 resection interferes with the lower resectability and results in a higher morbidity. Wereviewed these cases retrospectively and considered the proper extent of the surgical resection. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed cases where patients underwent surgery for gastric adenocarcinoma at the Department of Surgery, Presbyterian Medical Center, between January 1998 and December 2003. Among the 45 patients who were suspected to have pancreatic head or duodenum invasion by a primary tumor or metastatic lymph nodes based on the operative findings, we included 22 patients without incurable factors. The patients were classified into three groups: 4 patients that underwent a combined resection (PD group), 12 patients that underwent a palliative subtotal gastrectomy (STG group) and 6 patients that underwent bypass surgery only (GJ group). We analyzed the clinicopathological features, operative data and results. Results: The patients of the PD group achieved R0 resection by PD with D3 Dissection in all Patients. A pancreatic fistula was observed in one patient (morbidity 25%). There was no surgery-associated mortality (mortality 0%). All patients of the PD group were in stage IV. However, the 2-year survival rate (SR) was 75% and the 5-year SR was 50%. Six patients of the STG group underwent surgery with marginal resection and the other six patients of the STG group had a positive distal resection margin. The 2-year SR was 41.7% and the 5-year SR was 16.7%. Most of the patients of group GJ were of old age (mean age: $72.7{\pm}8.6$ years) or had chronic diseases. The 2-year SR was 0%. Conclusion: Combined resection of the pancreas and duodenum in AGC with pancreatic head invasion is relatively safe with moderate morbidity and a lower mortality. One can expect long-term survival if combined resectionis performed in cases without incurable factors.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-4
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• 2010

Purpose: Gastric epithelial dysplasia (GED) was defined as "unequivocally neoplastic epithelium that may be associated with or give rise to invasive adenocarcinoma" and GED also represents a direct precursor of intestinal type adenocarcinoma of the stomach. The recommended treatment guidelines for GED in the medical literature are endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) or surgery for high grade dysplasia (HGD) and annual endoscopic surveillance with biopsy for low grade dysplasia (LGD) The aim of this study was to determine the treatment plan for GED that is diagnosed by endoscopic biopsy. Materials and Methods: We enrolled 148 patients who were treated by endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) or endoscopiccsubmucosal dissection (ESD) for GED: there were 63 patients with HGD and 85 patients with LGD and all of them were diagnosed by endoscopic biopsy from January 2006 to December 2008. The results of the final histopathologic reports after EMR or ESD were compared with the results of the endoscopic biopsies. Results: The final histopathologic results of the 148 patients with GED showed 49 (33.1%) patients with adenocarcinoma, 40 (27.0%) patients with HGD and 59 (39.9%) patients with LGD. Among the 63 patients with HGD, 34 (54.0%) patients had adenocarcinoma, 20 (31.7%) patients had HGD and 9 (14.3%) patients had LGD. For the 85 patients with LGD, 15 (17.6%) patients had adenocarcinoma, 20 (23.5%) patients had HGD and 50 (58.8%) patients had LGD Conclusion: Complete resection, including EMR or ESD, is needed for patients with GED diagnosed by endoscopic biopsy and they have HGD. For patients with LGD, EMR or ESD may be needed in addition to endoscopic surveillance with biopsy for making the correct diagnosis and proper treatment because of the possibility of adenocarcinoma.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.103-108
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• 2006

Purpose: The circular stapled Billroth I gastrectomy has been gradually popularized because of several advantages. Thus, this study aims to identify what to be supplemented for the safety of this technique by examining the potential complication after the circular stapled Billroth I gastrectomy. Materials and Methods: This study selected 594 patients who underwent the circular stapled Billroth I gastrectomy because of the gastric cancer in our department of surgery from Jan. 1998 to Dec. 2004 as the subjects. As of Jan. 2001 when the bleeding on the anastomosis site was visually checked through the small incision at the opposite curvature to the lesion of the stomach to be resected and so the operation was completed, the patients were divided into the Group I (n=219) and Group II (n=375), which were the patients before and after Jan. 2001, respectively. Then, the clinical characteristics and postoperative anastomotic complications of both groups were compared. Results: For the comparison of complications between two groups, the anastomotic leakage was found in four cases in Group I and three cases in Group II (p=0.196). The stenosis on the anastomosis region was not observed in both groups. The bleeding on the anastomosis region illustrates the statistically significant difference between Group I and Group II, with 43 cases and 2 cases, respectively (P=0.0019). Conclusion: The circular stapled Billroth I gastrectomy is recommended because of several advantages of this technique. However, the bleeding on the anastomosis site may be indicated as the critical issue. Accordingly, the visual check on the bleeding on the anastomosis site during the operation will improve the safety of circular stapler.