Causes and treatment of chylous leakage after gastrointestinal tumor surgery        LIN Feng, CAI Guan-fu. Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangzhou510080, China
Corresponding author: LIN Feng, E-mail：sylf3133@21cn.com
Abstract    Chylous leakage is a potential irregular complication after gastrointestinal tumor surgery, which occurs as a consequence of disruption of the major abdominal lymphatics, and sometimes is associated with a congenital lymphatic malformation or malignant lymphatics obstruction. Standard lymphangiography or lymphoscintigraphy is not necessary for the diagnosis of chylous leakage. Conservative treatment should be recommended as the first-line therapy for postoperative chylous leakage, total parenteral nutrition combined with somatostatin therapy would result in high cure rate. Traditional surgical exploration is raised when conservative treatment is failed or the drain ?uid is more than 1,000 mL/day for a long duration. The major retroperitoneal lymphatic channels should be recognized intraoperatively and ligated properly to preventing chylous complications.