Minimally invasive surgery modalities in the treatment of esophagial cancers

Malignant tumours of esophagus have an increasing frequency in the population with a high mortality. surgery is the most important choice of treatment modality in the first 3 stages of the disease. in the open surgery methods for esophagial cancers, mortality and morbidity rates are between 5-15% and 30-60% respectively. due to these high rates for mortality and morbidity, minimally invasive surgery (mis) gained great importance in the treatment of these patients. patient selection in esophagial cancer treatment by using mis is very important. these modalities can be used for lesions located in middle-distal portion of esophagus. tumours should not have any invasion to adjacent structures, widespread lymph node invasions and should be staged between t1-3 n0-1. lateral decubitus and also prone position can be used for mis. there are still no controlled randomised studies comparing mis to open surgery for esophagial cancers. but retrospective series show that oncologic results are similar and postoperative complications are better in mis groups. on the current daily practice mis are done by experienced institutuions and surgical groups. in the future mis will be used more commonly in treatment of esophagial cancers by improvement in invasive skills and infrastructures in the institutions.