Surgical Approaches to Remove the Esophagus: Minimally Invasive

Abstract Even if technically demanding and requiring a significant learning curve, the feasibility and safety of minimally invasive esophagectomy have been proven. Moreover, several benefits have been reported with minimally invasive surgery over the open approach, such as postoperative pain reduction, faster recovery, and decrease of cardiopulmonary complications, blood loss, and length of stay. The short and long-term oncologic outcomes after minimally invasive esophagectomy are similar to those observed with open approaches. Minimally invasive esophagectomy is a valid alternative approach to open esophagectomy for both esophageal benign disease and cancer.