Table 2.

Perioperative clinical data in two groups

	Group A	Group B
Conversion to open surgery	0	0
Average operative time(min)	180	220
Average mediastinoscopic time	108	100
Average abdominal time	80	120
Average total blood loss(ml)	218	100
Average number of lymph node dissection	12	15
Intraoperative splenic rupture*	1	0
Pulmonary infection	1	0
Mediastinal chyle leakage▵	1	0
Recurrent laryngeal nerve injury	2	0
Anastomotic leakage	3	1
Pain(visual analog score)	8	4
Mean ICU stay(day)	2.2	1.2
Mean postoperative hospital stay(day)	11.6	10.6

*Splenectomy was performed in one patient because of intraoperative splenic rupture with 600 ml blood loss. ^▵Mediastinal chyle leakage was recorded in one patient. The amount of mediastinal chyle was totle 900-2000 ml/d. At last a lower ligation for thoracic duct was performed through right thoracotomy after inefficacious conservative treatment of one week.