Comparison of open three-field and minimally-invasive esophagectomy for esophageal cancer.

The aim was to compare the early outcomes between thoracoscopic and laparoscopic esophagectomy (TLE) and open three-field esophagectomy for esophageal cancer. We retrospectively analyzed clinical data from 96 patients with esophageal cancer who underwent TLE, and 78 patients who underwent open three-field esophagectomy from March 2008 to September 2010. All the operations were successful. There was no significant difference between TLE and open three-field esophagectomy with regard to the number of lymph nodes procured (17.75±5.56 vs. 18.03±6.20, P>0.05), complications (32.3% vs. 46.2%, P>0.05), and operative mortality (2.1% vs. 3.8%, P>0.05). However, hospital stay was significantly shorter in the TLE group than the open esophagectomy group (12.64±8.82 vs. 17.53±6.40 days, P<0.01), and the TLE group had significantly less blood loss (346.68±41.13 vs. 519.26±47.74 ml, P<0.01). This showed that TLE for esophageal cancer offers results as good as or better than those with open three-field esophagectomy.