OR / Prep · Thoracic Surgery · open
You’re scrubbing into
Esophagectomy (Ivor Lewis)
Why are we operating?
Removal of the esophagus for cancer through abdomen then right chest, with the stomach refashioned into a tube and brought up to replace it, one of surgery's biggest physiological insults, staged as two operations in one.
Indication: Resectable carcinoma of the middle or lower esophagus after staging and usually after neoadjuvant therapy, in a patient fit for two body cavities.
The operation in 4 steps
01Abdominal phase
02Making the conduit
03Thoracic phase
04The anastomosis
Watch it done
The modified Ivor Lewis esophagectomy technique
Operative footage of the two-field operation: abdominal mobilisation then the chest anastomosis.
Source: CTSNet · Watch on YouTubeSurgery for esophagus cancer: esophagectomy
The overview a patient is given before the operation.
Source: Mayo Clinic · Watch on YouTube
Conceptual teaching for learners preparing to observe and assist under supervision, not operative instructions. Five minutes from now you should know why this operation exists, what its shape is, and which structures it is designed not to injure.