Safety and feasibility of near-infrared image-guided lymphatic mapping of regional lymph nodes in esophageal cancer

To assess safety and feasibility of an intraoperative, minimally invasive near-infrared (NIR) image-guided approach to lymphatic mapping in patients with esophageal cancer.Although local lymph nodes (LNs) are removed with the esophageal specimen, no techniques are available to identify the regional LNs (separate from the esophagus) during esophagectomy. We hypothesize that NIR imaging can identify regional LNs with the potential to improve...