Prevention of delayed gastric emptying after esophagectomy: a single center's experience with botulinum toxin.

Background: Impaired gastric emptying after esophagectomy contributes to significant morbidity and delayed recovery. Traditional measures to prevent this include pyloromyotomy and pyloroplasty. These procedures are associated with known complications and do not always prevent delayed gastric emptying.

Thoracoscopic esophageal mobilization during minimally invasive esophagectomy: a head-to-head comparison of prone versus decubitus positions.

Background: Minimally invasive esophagectomy (MIE) is being performed at an increasing number of institutions. The thoracoscopic portion is generally performed in the left lateral decubitus position. Recently there has been increasing interest in esophageal mobilization in the prone position and the potential benefits of this technique with regard to operative time, surgeon ergonomics, and operative exposure.

A physiologic clinical study of achalasia: should Dor fundoplication be added to Heller myotomy?

Objective: Myotomy for achalasia disrupts the lower esophageal sphincter, improving emptying at the expense of reflux. We hypothesized that surgical palliation of achalasia requires balancing desirable improvement in esophageal emptying with undesirable production of gastroesophageal reflux. Therefore, we objectively studied the physiologic effects of adding Dor fundoplication to Heller myotomy.