Randomised Controlled Trial (Feasibility Study) of Prophylactic Pyloric Balloon Dilatation During Ivor Lewis Oesophagectomy to Prevent Delayed Gastric Emptying

The Ivor Lewis gastro-oesophagectomy is a complex operation that is performed to treat cancer of the oesophagus (food pipe) whereby most of the oesophagus and upper stomach are removed and the remaining stomach is brought into the chest and joined to the remaining oesophagus. In order to reduce the burden of complications of the procedure, research has been conducted in search of methods to improve the procedure and outcomes after the operation. Delayed gastric emptying (how quickly food empties out of your stomach into your small bowel) is a common problem after this operation (20% of patients). The situation can lead to a feeling of being full up, loss of appetite and nausea. Rarely, in severe cases patients may vomit or food going into lung causing a chest infection or develop a leak from the operative joint which can prolong hospital stay by an average of 5 days. Treatment currently is uncertain, as is the scale of problem (how common it is) and there is no standard definition for delayed gastric emptying (there is no agreed standard way to describe slow emptying of food from the stomach into the small bowel by experts). There is a theory that the problem might be caused due to the outlet of the stomach (pylorus) narrowing down. Prevention of the problem is also uncertain.

In order to investigate prevention of the problem, the study will involve randomising patients during the oesophagectomy to either dilatation (stretching) of the pylorus with a balloon, or not, and completion of an abbreviated quality of life questionnaire (8 multiple choice questions).

During the oesophagectomy, all patients routinely have endoscopy (camera test of the gullet and stomach) to assess the tumour. It is during this part of the operation that you will be randomised to either the balloon group or no intervention. The questionnaire is to assess your quality of life, in terms of delayed gastric emptying, at different points after the operation.

Preoperative endoscopic pyloric balloon dilatation with 20 mm has been shown to decrease incidence of DGE (only 18.3 % of the intervention group developed DGE compared to 37.5% in the non-intervention group (Hadzijusufovic et al., 2019). This however was a cohort study, and the main issue was that the intervention group had 115 patients whilst the non-dilatation group had 24 patients (tumour could not be passed with the scope). There aren't currently any published randomised control trials that looked at intra-operative endoscopic pyloric dilatation and how this relates to incidence of DGE.