Ivor Lewis Minimally Invasive Esophagectomy - What Do We Choose? Literature Review

Purpose: The transition from open esophagectomy to Ivor Lewis to minimally invasive surgery has been gradual through hybrid approaches. The aim of this study was to present a comparison of the current variants of minimally invasive Ivor Lewis esophagectomy. Methods: A systematic literature search was performed to analyze the technical features of minimally invasive Ivor Lewis esophagectomy and their postoperative results. The research was performed in the PubMed and Medscape databases with the keywords Ivor Lewis minimally invasive esophagectomy, gastric tube, esogastric anastomosis, and the selection of articles was performed taking into account the technical variance used and the results obtained. Results: The research of the data in the literature shows that there is currently a consensus of the essential steps in the Ivor Lewis technique, but their performance allows the use of different options, each surgeon taking into account primarily their own experience and existing facilities in each hospital. Although, over time, there have been multiple transformations of some steps in the basic technique, currently there are still conflicting opinions on certain aspects of the surgical technique, all of which are motivated by research undertaken to improve postoperative results. Conclusions: Ivor Lewis Minimally invasive esophagectomy further raises debatable issues on the practical way to perform the essential steps of the technique; their clarification could lead to finding the optimal option.