Talk:Esophagectomy

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Ideal sources for Wikipedia's health content are defined in the guideline Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources (medicine) and are typically review articles. Here are links to possibly useful sources of information about Esophagectomy.

PubMed provides review articles from the past five years (limit to free review articles)
The TRIP database provides clinical publications about evidence-based medicine.
Other potential sources include: Centre for Reviews and Dissemination and CDC

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What conditions should be treated by Esophagectomy? Is this as serious a procedure as it sounds to the layman? RJFJR 21:08, 25 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

In answer to above questions:

First question is addressed early in the article. At least some of the named conditions have Wikipedia entries. Almost always, the indication for esophagectomy would be some people with Esophageal Cancer, when esophagectomy is part of the recommendation to provide best chance of survival. The most serious benign (non-malignant) indication would be a medical emergency (such as esophageal perforation) that could not be repaired a less-invasive way. For other benign indications, it would be the patient's decision whether they believed the surgery would improve their quality of life (and/or longevity) - assuming that other options had been exhausted (e.g., somewhat similar to decision-process for bariatric surgery) and/or other options are not acceptable to the patient.

Second question: Probably *more* serious than it sounds, especially short-term and and the next few years. (After-effects are under-stated.) It has been described as "second in complexity to a liver transplant." This is one of the "handful of surgeries" where selection of surgeon and of hospital are both exceedingly important. When done as emergency-surgery, it is even "more serious than it [already] sounds."

Article is out-of-date. (Other internet resources are more current.) The article sounds reasonably accurate for, say, 5-8 years ago. Probably, most people who would have the knowledge to update the page are either too busy saving lives, living the remainder of their own lives, or providing care to someone who is. To find people to update it: There are an increasing number of people who have survived Esophageal Cancer (including many who have had this surgery long-enough ago to be able to allocate time and to write about after-effects). Another group of people (far larger in number) who can help (but with bias, unless written collectively by a group) are family-members of someone deceased. Nursing-staff would have a broader view (having been involved with more patients) but not have as much understanding of day-to-day life after esophagectomy. KnowLimits (talk) 04:13, 7 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]