Endoscopic Management for Post-Surgical Complications after Resection of Esophageal Cancer

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Interesting summary of endoscopic treatment of postoperative complication after esophageal resection.

I would recommend minor revisions:

• Please give the number of analyzed studies in the review
• Please provide a flow chart of the review process

68-71: Consider evaluation of main topics out of prevalence and not out of clinical practice. If this is the case, please mention it.

72-82: Was literature search done according to PRISMA-guidelines? If yes, please mention.

137: Think about mentioning hemostatic gel.

208-209: Please state in which case EVT should be placed intraluminal (no relevant extraluminal fluid collection or no big wound cavity) and when not.

287: Data for bouginage for strictures?

Please proof-read your work for minor grammatic corrections.

Author Response

Dear reviewer, I would like to thank you for reviewing the manuscript, for the supportive comments and valuable advices. Your mentioned points and remarks were very helpful. See the point-by-point answer below:

• Please give the number of analyzed studies in the review: The number of 4871 studies is documented now in line 78
• Please provide a flow chart of the review process: The flowchart is implemented
• 68-71: Consider evaluation of main topics out of prevalence and not out of clinical practice. If this is the case, please mention it. : Thanks for this remark. The sentence: 

  "The selection of the main topics for the review is based on their prevalence and clinical relevance: anastomotic hemorrhage, anastomotic insufficiency, conduit ischemia, delayed gastric emptying, and anastomotic stenosis." is inserted in line 70-72

• 72-82: Was literature search done according to PRISMA-guidelines? If yes, please mention. Thanks for this valuable remark. We inserted the infomration and the flowchart
• 137: Think about mentioning hemostatic gel. This was a very heplful comment. We inserted infomrations about the hematsatic gel in line 150 and 166-171.
• 208-209: Please state in which case EVT should be placed intraluminal (no relevant extraluminal fluid collection or no big wound cavity) and when not. We inserted the sentence: Intracavitary therapy is used for large, contaminated wound cavities with a broad entrance. The endoluminal position of the OPSD is used for small defects and no big wound cavities. in line 231-233.
• 287: Data for bouginage for strictures? Thank for this remark, we inserted infomrations about bougienage and the new tool BougieCap in this paragraph in line 316/317 and 323-325. 
• Please proof-read your work for minor grammatic corrections: the manuscript is total revised, thanks for this remark.

Thanks again! Your Dörte Wichmann

Reviewer 2 Report

First I want to thank for the opportunity to review the manuscript titled "Endoscopic Management for Post-Surgical Complications after Resection of Esophageal Cancer" submitted by Wichmann and colleagues.

I have read this comprehensive review with great interest because I have been working as a thoracic and general surgeon for nearly 20 years and I´m very, very familiar with these different postoperative complications after esophagectomy and reconstrcution by gastric-pull up.

The authors have adressed the most frequent types of complications in a very satisfying way which enables the experienced and interested reader/ surgeon to get an update on the current therapeutic treatment options in a very short time.

No further queries.

Good luck for the authors!

Author Response

Dear reviewer, thank you very much for your positive assessment of the manuscript. We also had a lot of enjoyment working on it and gained interesting insights. Thanks again, Your Dörte Wichmann