Prevalence and clinical course of postoperative acute lung injury after esophagectomy for esophageal cancer

Esophagectomy for esophageal cancer is associated with marked morbidity and mortality (1). Despite improvements in surgical technique and postoperative care, complications following esophagectomy, involving predominantly the cardiovascular system, occur in up to 50% of patients (2). Among pulmonary complications, acute lung injury (ALI) after esophagectomy, which is characterized by the acute onset of hypoxemia with radiographic pulmonary infiltrates without a clearly identifiable cause, has been reported (3,4). A few studies have reported that approximately 25–38% of patients develop ALI after esophagectomy for esophageal cancer (1,4,5); however, there are limited data on the clinical characteristics and outcomes of ALI following esophagectomy. The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence and clinical course of ALI after esophagectomy