['Leakage and benign strictures occur frequently after esophagectomy. The objective of this study was to analyze the outcome of hand-sewn end-to-end versus end-to-side cervical esophagogastric anastomoses.', 'A series of 390 consecutive patients who underwent esophagectomy with gastric conduit reconstruction was analyzed.', 'The end-to-end technique was performed in 112 (29\xa0%) patients and the end-to-side in 278 (71\xa0%) patients. Anastomotic leakage occurred in 20 (18\xa0%) patients with an end-to-end anastomosis versus 58 (21\xa0%) patients with an end-to-side anastomosis (p\u2009=\u20090.50). A higher incidence in anastomotic strictures was seen in end-to-end anastomoses (48 (43\xa0%)) compared with end-to-side anastomoses (89 (32\xa0%); p\u2009=\u20090.04). Moreover, a median of 11 (7-17) dilations was necessary in patients with a benign anastomotic stricture in the end-to-end group compared with four (2-8) dilations in patients with a benign anastomotic stricture in the end-to-end group (p\u2009<\u20090.036). After multivariate analysis, the difference in anastomotic leakage rates remained nonsignificant (p\u2009=\u20090.74), whereas anastomotic stricture rate and number of dilations were higher in the end-to-end group (p\u2009=\u20090.03 and p\u2009=\u20090.01, respectively).'] Are end-to-end cervical esophagogastric anastomoses associated with a higher number of strictures compared with end-to-side anastomoses?