Although esophageal cancers have poor survival outcomes, evidence suggests that preoperative chemoradiation followed by surgery have improved survival outcomes. Minimally invasive surgery has equivalent oncological outcomes with less complication compared with open surgery, but there is insufficient data available in South Indian population. Our aim was to analyze the perioperative outcome and survival between minimally invasive and open transhiatal esophagectomy group. Data from patients operated for esophageal cancer in our department from the year 2015 to 2018 were collected retrospectively using medical records. Among 55 carcinoma esophagus patients, squamous histology (67%) and lower third location (57%) being predominant. Twenty-six patients underwent video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS)–assisted esophagectomy and 18 patients underwent open transhiatal esophagectomy. Eleven patients were inoperable. Sixteen patients in VATS arm and three patients in transhiatal arm received preoperative chemoradiation. VATS arm has lesser intraoperative blood loss, early pulmonary recovery with early intercostal drain removal, and lesser hospital stay but longer mean operating time of 171 min versus 140 min (P < 0.01). It has higher mean nodal harvest of 15 versus 7 nodes (P 0.01) and higher overall median survival of 36 months (95% CI, 29.3 to 42.7) as against 23 months (95% CI, 17.8 to 29.2) for transhiatal arm (P < 0.01). VATS-assisted esophagectomy is less morbid procedure with early postoperative recovery, better oncological outcomes, and improved survival compared with transhiatal arm which is equivalent to apex centers in India.
