Nederlandse Vereniging voor Chirurgische Oncologie

Vergadering gehouden op 17 maart 1989 te Amsterdam

The principles of esophageal surgery are changing, and extended esophagectomy, with mediastinectomy and surgical radical lymph node dissection seems now widely accepted. However, the precise extent of lymph node resection is difficult to outline clearly: the complexity of any attempt at systematisation in this field reflects the disconcerting nature of the lymphatic drainage of the esophagus, in which the first relay nodes already belong to the common mediastinal system.

In contrast, some teams consider that the histologic type and the extent of the tumor are more important for prognosis than the lymphatic…