351. superior mediastinal dissection during minimally invasive esophagectomy for esophageal cancer—a multicenter propensity score matched (psm) analysis

Abstract Minimally invasive esophagectomy (MIE) is currently the preferred approach of surgery for esophageal cancer. Systematic superior mediastinal lymphadendectomy along bilateral recurrent laryngeal nerve is enhanced by the magnified view in thoracoscopy, and is increasingly performed to achieve complete nodal dissection. Both participating centers began MIE with systematic superior mediastinal dissection in recent 5 years. In the current study, we aim to compare the short- and medium-term outcomes of MIE with or without superior mediastinal dissection. Consecutive patients who received MIE for esophageal cancers from 2004 to 2021 were recruited, data were collected from a prospectively maintained database. Patients were divided into ‘systematic superior mediastinal dissection’ and ‘control’ groups, and propensity score matching was performed with age, tumor location, tumor stage and neoadjuvant therapy. Total 157 patients were recruited, 67 (42.7%) in the extended superior mediastinal dissection group. After PSM, 48 patients were identified in each group. Short term surgical outcomes as well as medium term survival results were compared. Operative time was significantly longer with extended superior mediastinal dissection. Higher number of lymph nodes were yielded in total and from the superior mediastinum. Recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy developed in 52.1% and 43.8% of the MIE with or without extended dissection respectively, but significantly fewer palsies required intervention in the extended dissection group. Higher rate of anastomotic leakage was observed in the extended dissection group, but there was no difference in the overall severe adverse event (> = Grade III: 31.3% vs 35.4%). There was no statistical difference in the survival, but a trend towards improved 2 year disease-free survival was observed. Minimally invasive esophagectomy with systematic superior mediastinal dissection achieved a higher lymph node yield and a trend towards improved disease free survival. The overall adverse event rate was similar with conventional dissection. While better cancer staging could be achieved with extended dissection, further research is required to confirm the oncological benefit of extended dissection.