Successful transition from open to minimally invasive approach in Ivor Lewis esophagectomy: a single-center experience in Japan

Purpose This study evaluates surgical outcomes of Ivor Lewis esophagectomy (ILE) in our institution, with the transition from open ILE to hybrid or totally minimally invasive ILE (MI-ILE). Methods Selected patients who underwent ILE for esophageal cancer between 2013 and 2020 were included. We retrospectively investigated the patients’ background characteristics and the short-term surgical outcomes. Results In this period, among a total of 858 esophagectomies, selected seventy-one patients (8.3%) underwent ILE, consisted of 17 cases with completely open procedures, 27 with hybrid MI-ILE, and 27 with total MI-ILE. The major indications for ILE were adenocarcinoma of the distal esophagus or esophagogastric junction (33.8%) and patients with prior treatment of head and neck cancer (31.0%). Among these approaches, there were no significant differences in the characteristics including age, body mass index (BMI), tumor location, preoperative therapy, and clinical TNM stage, except for histology. Compared to the completely open and hybrid groups, incidences of both total and severe complications in the total MI-ILE group were significantly lower (total 70.6 vs. 66.6 vs. 37.0%, p =0.036; severe 35.3 vs. 44.4 vs. 11.1%, p =0.023), and also, those of pneumonia (41.2 vs. 29.6 vs. 7.4%, p =0.026) and postoperative stricture (11.8 vs. 18.5 vs. 0%, p =0.001) were significantly fewer in the total MI-ILE group. Conclusions We have been able to achieve the transition from completely open to total MI-ILE with better short-term outcomes. Total MI-ILE with linear-stapled anastomosis can be a good alternative to open procedures for the selected patients with reducing the incidence of postoperative pneumonia and anastomotic stricture.