Recently, thoracic surgeons of our hospital successfully completed the first case of radical resection of esophageal cancer via esophageal cleft, filling the gap in Southwest Shandong and becoming one of the few hospitals in China that can complete this surgery. In the traditional open thoracotomy for esophageal cancer, according to the location of the lesion, it is usually necessary to choose transthoracic incision of the diaphragm or open abdomen to free the gastric tissues, so it inevitably brings about the destruction of the integrity of the diaphragm and abdomen, with large surgical trauma and many postoperative complications. The performance of postoperative pain, easy to diaphragmatic hernia, abdominal wall hernia, abdominal incision and other conditions. In response to these situations, it appears that without cutting the diaphragm or without opening the abdomen, the gastric tissue is freed directly through the esophageal hiatus, which is a natural orifice, and then lifted up into the thoracic cavity for the anastomosis of the esophagogastric. It has the advantages of less trauma, less pain, and fewer postoperative complications. The operation through the narrow hole of esophageal hiatus to deal with gastric blood vessels and adhesion bands is very difficult and risky, and requires the operator to have a high level of experience and technical skills in esophageal cancer surgery, so only a few hospitals in China have the ability to complete this surgical method. Our department has actively summarized the technical experience of traditional open thoracic and thoracoscopic minimally invasive surgeries, made efforts to explore and practice, and successfully performed radical esophageal cancer surgery via esophageal slit for the patient, who has been discharged from the hospital with good recovery after the surgery. The successful completion of this surgical method marks that our hospital has reached a new height in the level of surgical treatment of open thoracic esophageal cancer.