LAUSR

The Trent Oesophago-Gastric Unit (TOGU) team would like to thank the letter’s authors for their interest in our study. This study was conducted using contemporaneously collected data of all consecutive esophagectomies with intrathoracic anastomosis in TOGU, i.e., it is a retrospective study using prospectively collected data [1]. As explained in the manuscript, before 2016 all esophagectomies with intrathoracic anastomosis performed in TOGU were subjected to circular anastomosis with very few using a hand-sewn technique (excluded). It was noted through the continuous practice auditing that the leak rate was higher than national [2] and international [3] rates (15%). Semi-mechanical technique was favored by local thoracic surgeons for cervical anastomosis. This gradually gained popularity to be used for intrathoracic anastomosis as well, based on published studies [4–7] and local expertise recommendation. This resulted in a significant reduction in leak rates as demonstrated in our study [1]. The authors also acknowledge that the focus on a newly used anastomotic technique might have contributed to better leak rates as mentioned in ‘‘Discussion’’ section of the manuscript. The figures missing from the table were for simplification purposes. Please find them in the attached tables (Tables 1 and 2). Once again, we would like to thank you for your interest in our manuscript. Table 1 Patients’ demographics