Predicting Successful Laparoendoscopic Transhiatal Esophagectomy (THE) by Mediastinal Height Measurement.

Background: Laparoendoscopic transhiatal esophagectomy (THE) provides advantages over traditional THE by not only avoiding laparotomy but by also allowing more precise esophageal mobilization. Occasionally, the length of the gastric conduit is insufficient to allow delivery into the neck after laparoscopic mobilization and requires laparotomy to complete the procedure. We hypothesize that the need for laparotomy will correlate with the measurement of mediastinal height (distance from thoracic vertebrae T1-T12) on chest CT.