OBJECTIVEInvestigate the best surgical resection of esophageal cancer by comparing the efficacy and safety between Ivor-Lewis esophagectomy and Sweet esophagectomy.

METHODSThe relevant literatures comparing Ivor-Lewis esophagectomy with Sweet esophagectomy were searched through PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, Google scholar, CNKI, CBM, VIP, WanFang Data. RevMan 5.2 software was used for data analysis.

RESULTSA total of 4106 patients in 15 studies were reviewed and the data were pooled for analysis. Meta-analysis showed that, compared with the Sweet group, Ivor-Lewis operative time was significantly longer(pooled mean difference=57.40; 95%CI:42.43 to 72.38; P=0.000), operative bleeding was significantly higher(pooled mean difference=28.39, 95%CI:4.06 to 52.72, P=0.02); the number of lymph node dissection significantly more(pooled mean difference=4.19, 95%CI:3.06 to 5.32, P=0.000); No significant difference was present in hospital stay, vocal cord paralysis, chylous leakage, pulmonary complications, anastomotic leakage(all P>0.05). The 5-year survival between the two groups showed no significant difference(P=0.52).

CONCLUSIONSThe two kinds of operation have the same long term effect. Compared with Ivor-Lewis operation, Sweet operation is easier to perform, less time consuming and more tolerable. Ivor-Lewis operation can dissect more lymph nodes than Sweet operation, without increased complications.