Novel technique for lymphadenectomy along left recurrent laryngeal nerve during thoracoscopic esophagectomy

Table 1 Clinicopathological characteristics of patients and tumors from two groups

	NM group, n = 58	CM group, n = 58	P value
Age in yr	60.34 ± 1.089	60.26 ± 1.029	0.954
Gender			0.221
Male	38	44
Female	20	14
Tumor location			0.884
Upper	12	10
Middle	37	38
Lower	9	10
Depth of tumor invasion			0.616
pT1	22	17
pT2	7	7
pT3	28	31
pT4	1	3
Lymph node metastasis			0.484
pN0	32	35
pN1	18	16
pN2	4	6
pN3	4	1
AJCC pathological stage			0.326
I	21	18
II	14	21
III	19	18
IV	4	1
Preoperative neoadjuvant chemotherapy/radiotherapy			0.242
Yes	2	5
No	56	53

CM: Conventional method; NM: Novel method.

Table 2 Surgical outcomes of patients from the two groups

	NM group, n = 58	CM group, n = 58	P value
Operative time in min	306.0 ± 6.774	335.2 ± 7.750	0.0054
Number of dissected lymph nodes along the left RLN	4.172 ± 0.359	2.983 ± 0.463	0.0447
Postoperative complication
Hoarseness	4	12	0.0312
Pneumonia	3	8	0.113
Anastomatic fistula	4	9	0.141
Chylothorax	3	1	0.309
Postoperative hospitalization in d	15.52 ± 0.905	17.72 ± 1.571	0.226