Trial on Ischemic Conditioning of the Gastric Conduit in Esophageal Cancer. Effects on Oxygenation and Anastomotic Leakage.

In patients with infracarinal esophageal carcinoma, the surgery is a complex procedure and with a high morbidity. It consists of a subtotal esophagectomy with tubular gastroplasty and cervical esophagogastric anastomosis. The most important complication is the anastomotic leakage with a high mortality. Among the possible causes of anastomotic leakage an important factor is the impaired microcirculation in the anastomotic region after the partial devascularization of the stomach during the surgery. There are several experimental studies about the different techniques to improve this vascularization and their effects on mucosal oxygenation. There are several methods currently used for assessing tissue oxygenation. The polarographic partial pressure of oxygen (pO2) electrode has been considered as the 'gold standard' for measuring oxygen tension. This is the reason why tissue pressure of oxygen (PtiO2) will be measured by Licox® (Integra Neuroscience) system in two groups. There aren't prospective randomized controlled trials to answer these questions. For this reason the investigators propose to perform a prospective randomized controlled trial in patients underwent on this surgery, comparing two groups: one of them will be carried out a preoperative arterial embolization (PAE), and the other one will be operated directly, to demonstrate if the ischemic conditioning by PAE can reduce the incidence of anastomotic esophagogastric leakage and improve the gastric conduit oxygenation.