[A prospective longitudinal study examining the impact on short term quality of life of hand video-assisted thoracoscopic surgical esophagectomy in patients with esophageal cancer].

Objective: To evaluate the impact of hand video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (HVATS) and Ivor-Lewis surgery on short term quality of life (QL) of patients with esophageal cancer.

Methods: Thirty-nine consecutive patients with esophageal cancer were classified into HVATS group (n = 21) and Ivor-Lewis group (n = 18) randomly, all patients completed the Chinese versions of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLQ)-C30 and QLQ-OES18 before treatment and at regular intervals until 6 months after operation. MEAN scores were calculated for every patient.