Abstract
Extended lymph node dissection, which includes dissection of the cervical and superior mediastinal nodes[three-field dissection , has been performed to improve the long-term survival since 1982 in Japan. Recently, the 5-year survival rate after three-field dissection has been reported to be better than 40%. During the period, from April to June, 1995, 4 patients among 7 operable esophageal cancer patients underwent subtotal esophagectomy with systematic dissection of regional lymph nodes including superior mediastinal and cervical lymph nodes at St. Mary`s Hospital. The esophagogastric anastomoses were made in the neck and the ascending routes of gastric tube were posterior mediastinal route. The cancer stage of them were stage IIA & IIB and it was possible to operate on a curability II & III basis. The numbers of resected lymph nodes with the three field dissection were 40-55. Postoperative complications were transient recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis and atelectasis in 2 patients respectively but there was no anastomotic leak nor stenosis.
