[Minimally invasive esophagectomy]

The application of minimally invasive esophagectomy in the treatment of esophageal carcinoma has drawn much attention. At present, results of quite a number of clinical researches show that minimally invasive esophagectomy is helpful to reduce trauma and complications of esophageal surgery, especially cardiopulmonary complications with shorter length of hospital stay. However, there are still controversies on resection extent, lymph node dissection and survival as compared to traditional open esophagectomy. This paper discusses the minimally invasive esophagectomy on the telescopic esophagectomy of primary lesion, lymph node dissection and survival based on the worldwide reports of telescopic esophagectomy researches.