[Endoscopic Surgery for Esophageal Cancer]

Conventional thoracotomic esophagectomy has been performed for treating invasive thoracic esophageal carcinoma. In spite of the improved survival rate, the procedure is associated with significant operative morbidity and mortality rates due to the extreme invasiveness of an extensive dissection for the lymph nodes. Minimally invasive esophagectomy was developed to reduce surgical invasiveness. Recently, the use of thoracoscopic esophagectomy performed in the prone position has stimulated new interest in minimally invasive approaches. However, the advantages and disadvantages of this technique are not well known. In this paper, we present our minimally invasive esophagectomy in the prone position, and the literature to date, including series and comparative studies of minimally invasive esophagectomy performed in the prone position, is summarized.