I operated on a 67year old lady yesterday. She is a very nice and friendly lady with very caring children. She had upper abdominal pain which started 2 years ago. She saw a general practitioner who did some blood test, told her she had gastritis ( everybody’s favourite diagnosis for any upper abdominal pain or discomfort), and this was because of H.pylori infection detected in her blood. He started her on medications. She was the same medications for two years despite her symptoms not resolving and being persistently worse.. He only decided to refer her to us when she started complaining of difficulty in swallowing and feels that her solid food gets stuck at the upper abdomen(epigastrium).
This was what we saw on endoscopy:
It was a large growth arising from the junction of the esophagus and stomach and extending down into the stomach for at least 10cm. It was what we call as Cancer of the Cardia or simply Stomach Cancer.
Her CT scan did not show any distant spread but CTscan in stomach and esophageal cancers are not accurate.
Upon surgery, the tumour was found to be advanced with many lymph nodes involved and also seedling along the small bowel and peritoneum(layer around inside of the abdomen). This was no more a curative surgery but mainly just palliative.
Was she late? Well, either she refused to have a scope done and took her symptoms lightly or she was not been appropriately counselled and adviced to get a scope done. She claims that the general practitioner never suggested anything as such!!!
I operated on a 67year old lady yesterday. She is a very nice and friendly lady with very caring children. She had upper abdominal pain which started 2 years ago. She saw a general practitioner who did some blood test, told her she had gastritis ( everybody’s favourite diagnosis for any upper abdominal pain or discomfort), and this was because of H.pylori infection detected in her blood. He started her on medications. She was the same medications for two years despite her symptoms not resolving and being persistently worse.. He only decided to refer her to us when she started complaining of difficulty in swallowing and feels that her solid food gets stuck at the upper abdomen(epigastrium).
This was what we saw on endoscopy:
It was a large growth arising from the junction of the esophagus and stomach and extending down into the stomach for at least 10cm. It was what we call as Cancer of the Cardia or simply Stomach Cancer.
Her CT scan did not show any distant spread but CTscan in stomach and esophageal cancers are not accurate.
Upon surgery, the tumour was found to be advanced with many lymph nodes involved and also seedling along the small bowel and peritoneum(layer around inside of the abdomen). This was no more a curative surgery but mainly just palliative.
Was she late? Well, either she refused to have a scope done and took her symptoms lightly or she was not been appropriately counselled and adviced to get a scope done. She claims that the general practitioner never suggested anything as such!!!
I am speechless.