This guide first discusses the benefits of different anastomotic techniques, procedures for improving healing, methods to assess gastric conduit perfusion, and methods for the detection and management of the cervical anastomotic leak after esophagectomy. The authors review previous literature on minimally invasive esophagectomy, particularly reports that have focused on thoracoscopic esophagectomy with mediastinal lymph node dissection, describing recent advances in robot-assisted minimally invasive esophagectomy for esophageal cancer. The concluding study focuses on hybrid laparo-thoracoscopic esophagectomy, with the concept of widening the operation area of the laparoscopic transhiatal approach, reducing the operation area of the right thoracoscopic approach and eventually aiming for radical laparoscopic transhiatal esophagectomy without blunt dissection.
