Hand-grip strength is a simple and effective outcome predictor in esophageal cancer following esophagectomy with reconstruction: a prospective study

From January 1st, 2007 to December 31, 2008, there was 68 cases underwent esophagectomy with reconstruction due to esophageal cancer in our hospital. After excluding 7 patients of incomplete data and loss of follow-up, there were 61 patients included in the study.There were 54 men and 7 women. The mean age is 60.7. Most of patients had squamous cell carcinoma. Patient with weak hand-grip strength prior to operation had exceedingly high rates of complication and mortality within 6 months after operation. Compared to other risk factors, low grip strength has highest relative risks for both mortality and morbidity.Because test for hand-grip strength is cheap, not time-consuming and has high predictive value, it may be included in routine preoperative evaluation.Patients with esophageal cancer often present with dysphagia and generalized weakness. Resection of the esophageal tumor with concomitant reconstruction, with either stomach or colon, is the procedure of choice. However, such procedure still carries considerable complication rates. For advanced disease, life expectance is often less than 12 months. Hence, adequate preoperative survey is necessary for all potential surgical candidates because complication and mortality would definitely occurred in a certain portion of patients. One of the important values of preoperative evaluation is to define those with high risks for morbidity and mortality. In addition to routine cancer survey, we often would like to evaluate patient's cardiac function or lung function as well as laboratory examinations. An ideal evaluation tool may be cheap, easy to interpret, not time consuming, not space-occupying, and effective. Hand-grip strength is a proper predictor of immune system, nutrition, aging process, bone density, overall body strength, especially in old age group [1]. The methods of such test is quite simple, we therefore want to see if such test has any role to predict patient's outcome after esophagectomy with reconstructio