Esophageal cancer is an aggressive malignancy and a major cause of cancer-related deaths globally. In 2012, about 460,000 new cases of esophageal cancer were diagnosed worldwide, with 400,000 deaths attributed to the disease (1). In China, esophageal cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related mortality, according to the China Cancer Registry, with approximately 270,000 new cases of esophageal cancer and about 200,000 deaths in 2013 (2). Surgery is still the most important and most effective way to treat resectable esophageal cancer. Despite advances in surgery and the development of multimodal therapy in recent years, patients with esophageal cancer continue to exhibit unfavorable clinical outcomes with a 5-year overall survival rate of less than 20% (3,4). Depth of carcinoma invasion and lymph node metastasis are the most important factors affecting esophageal cancer prognosis. Therefore, lymph node dissection is an essential part of radical surgery for esophageal cancer. Radical lymphadenectomy may help determine precise postoperative pathological staging, ensure the integrity and radicality of surgery, and more importantly, improve the survival of patients after surgery (5).