Three-region approach for #106recR lymph node dissection during robot-assisted minimally invasive esophagectomy: a reproducible and easily adoptable technique.

When divided into early and late phases, the dissection time significantly decreased in the minimally invasive esophagectomy group (P < 0.01), whereas no significant difference was observed in the robot-assisted minimally invasive esophagectomy group (P = 0.27).

The number of retrieved #106recR lymph nodes and postoperative complications, including recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy, were comparable between the groups.