BACKGROUND: The clinical significance of lymph node involvement along the recurrent laryngeal nerves in @entity5 of the @entity1514 esophagus is still controversial. Although these lymph nodes are anatomically located in a well-defined compartment (proximal mesoesophagus), appropriate procedures for dissecting them are not well established. STUDY DESIGN: We retrospectively investigated clinical results over the past 10 years in 276 @entity1 who underwent systematic dissection of cervical, mediastinal, and upper abdominal lymph nodes. We routinely performed the cervical procedure before thoracotomy for total dissection of the proximal mesoesophagus and to minimize the operative risk. RESULTS: All macroscopically recognizable lesions were resected in 94% of the @entity1 . The hospital mortality rate was 2.5%. Recurrent @entity129 developed in 59 @entity1 , but it was successfully managed without prolonged hoarseness in 50 of them. The recurrent nerve node group was most frequently involved (frequency of 25% in superficial @entity5 , 57% in non-superficial @entity5 ). Supradiaphragmatic lymph node involvement was limited to the recurrent nerve nodes in 25% of the @entity1 with positive supradiaphragmatic node. The 5-year survival rate in @entity1 with positive recurrent nerve nodes was 34%. CONCLUSIONS: Dissection of the recurrent nerve lymph nodes is essential for curative esophagectomy even in the early phase of @entity3 . Our cervicothoracic approach for total dissection of the proximal mesoesophagus yielded acceptable outcomes.

Cervicothoracic approach for total mesoesophageal dissection in @entity5 of the XXXX esophagus.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['patients'] @entity129 :: ('MESH:D003389', 'Disease') :: ['nerve palsy'] @entity5 :: ('MESH:D009369', 'Disease') :: ['cancer'] @entity1514 :: ('MESH:D013896', 'Disease') :: ['thoracic'] @entity3 :: ('MESH:D009362', 'Disease') :: ['cancer invasion']
@entity1514 :: (MESH:D013896,Disease) :: ['thoracic']
