Table 1.

Differences between left lateral decubitus position and prone position during minimally invasive esophagectomy

	Left lateral decubitus position	Prone position
One-lung ventilation	necessary	sometimes helpful
Airway management/ability performing bronchoscopy	easy	more difficult
Retraction of right lung	necessary	not necessary
Suction of blood	often necessary (blood pools in the surgical field)	on occasion necessary (blood pools ventral, outside the surgical field)
Anatomical overview	limited field of view, often situational adaption necessary (retraction)	good and stable overview, adaption to new anatomical perspective necessary
Emergency conversion	easy	more difficult