Esophagectomy FAQ

It is incredibly important to maintain your nutrition before your esophagectomy. You'll work with your esophageal cancer team, including a registered dietitian, to ensure you're maintaining adequate nutrition. If you are able to eat and swallow, you will be placed on a modified, high-protein diet and supplements. The goal is to maintain your weight as much as possible throughout treatment.

If you are a smoker, you must quit smoking as part of your surgical preparation, because smoking greatly increases the risk of complications during and after surgery. We offer a comprehensive smoking cessation program to help you quit.

During your recovery, the goal is to get you back to eating both for pleasure and for nourishment. Normally, your stomach is a passage organ. After a big meal, food churns in your stomach for a couple of hours and is digested. After your esophagus is removed and rebuilt with your stomach or colon, you are advised to eat seven smaller meals each day. This is because if you eat a lot, you will feel full much more quickly. After your esophagectomy, you can still enjoy many of the foods you love; you'll just have to eat smaller meals, more frequently than the standard three large meals each day.

An esophagectomy is a big operation, even when it uses a minimally invasive approach. The surgery crosses two or three body cavities — abdomen, chest and neck — and routinely takes four to six hours.

After your procedure, you'll likely be able to get out of your hospital bed and walk around within about 48 hours. The general length of stay after an esophagectomy is about eight days. You'll be discharged from the hospital with a feeding tube placed.

Generally, your feeding tube will stay placed for six to eight weeks. However, several factors, including the need for post-operative chemotherapy, can affect how long you have a feeding tube. Three weeks after surgery, you'll undergo a swallow study. If the connection is healed, you'll advance your diet. Once you are cleared to swallow, you'll go through about a 10-day diet transition from clear liquids, to full liquids, to soft foods.

Yes. Regular aerobic exercise is an important component of esophagectomy preparation. When you are in your best possible physical condition before surgery, it is more likely that you will experience a quicker and easier recovery after surgery.

If you are malnourished because your symptoms make it impossible for you to swallow, you will likely have a feeding tube placed before you undergo chemotherapy, radiation therapy or surgery. If you are undernourished, we may not be able to treat you.