Defining the Impact of Surgical Approach on Perioperative Outcomes for Patients with Gastric Cardia Malignancy

Gastric cardia cancer is currently treated with several operations. The purpose of the current study was to compare outcomes associated with three common operative approaches. The ACS-NSQIP Participant Use File was searched to identify all patients with gastric cardia malignancy who underwent total gastrectomy (TG), transhiatal esophagectomy (THE), or thoraco-abdominal esophagectomy (TAE) between 2005 and 2012. Demographic, perioperative risk factors, and outcomes were analyzed. Overall, there were 982 patients identified in the database who met inclusion criteria. The median age was 65 years (range 20–88) and 807 (82.2 %) were male. The number of patients allocated to each approach was 204 TGs (20.8 %), 271 THE (27.6 %), and 507 TAE (51.6 %). All approaches had similar major morbidity, cardiopulmonary morbidity, and 30-day mortality, however, TAE was associated with the highest overall morbidity (TAE 49.9 % vs. TG 40.7 % and THE 43.5 %, p = 0.048). The independent risk factors predicting mortality were age greater than 65 years, history of myocardial infarction, and postoperative cardiopulmonary morbidity. For patients with proximal gastric cancer, the three most common operative approaches were associated with clinically-significant rates of overall and major morbidity. Approach-associated morbidity should be considered along with tumor location and extent when choosing a technique for resection of gastric cardia malignancy.