ABSTRACT
Esophageal cancer is one kind of the common gastrointestinal cancers, which is a serious threat to health and life of human beings.Esophagectomy with systematic lymphadenectomy is still the most effective treatment method for early and resectable esophageal cancer.However, due to the complex paraesophageal anatomy, there are some great difficulties need to be overcome in traditional open surgery and minimally invasive esophagectomy(MIE), such as the exposure and separation of esophagus together with tumor, lymph node dissection, etc.Da Vinci Surgical System (Intuitive Surgical, USA) with the advantages like 3-dimensional view, accuracy and stability, has been used to perform robot-assisted minimally invasive esophagectomy (RAMIE) in many countries including China.Frequently-used procedures of RAMIE include McKeown procedure, Ivor-Lewis procedure and transhiatal esophagectomy (THE).This review makes an introduction to the methods and applications of these 3 procedures, and the research status of RAMIE.