Influence of transposed stomach on cardiac function in patients with resected esophageal cancer.

Although the use of the posterior mediastinum and the stomach as a reconstruction option after esophagectomy has wide acceptance, there are concerns about the potential cardiac impairment it could cause. We prospectively studied 27 patients regarding the function and the systolic diameter, diastolic diameter, shortening fraction, ejection fraction and the presence of extrinsic compression. The patients were studied preoperatively and between the 45th and 60th postoperative days. The parameters were still within normal clinical ranges. We concluded that this type of reconstruction does not harm the patients in terms of their cardiac function.