Introduction: Historically, open esophagectomy has been the norm. However, minimally invasive esophagectomy has gained popularity in recent decades due to its improved disease-specific survival rate, and post-operative complications. The current study compares the hand-sewn and staple anastomosis outcomes in esophagectomy. Method: All patients who underwent esophagectomy with neck anastomosis between January 2017 and March 2021 at the surgical oncology department of Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar was included in this study. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data summary. The inferential statistics were performed to compare handsewn and stapled anastomosis outcomes. The p-value was significant at a 0.05 level. Result: In the current study, the mean operation time was quite higher on the staple group (p<0.0001). However, the anastomotic time was less in the staple group compared to the hand-sewn group. Moreover, there was a significant difference in right intercostal drainage tube time across the handsewn and staple groups (p<0.0001). The major anastomotic leakage was high in the hand-sewn group. Conclusion: The current study highlighted that stapled anastomosis should be preferred instead of hand-sewn anastomosis in esophagectomy. The anastomotic time, right intercostal tube removal time, and hospital stay were significantly reduced in the stapled anastomosis compared to the hand-sewn anastomosis.

Keywords : esophagectomy, hand-sewn anastomosis, staple anastomosis.