Fig. 2

Examples of exposure effect of left-sided mediastinal lymph node dissection. a The left upper lobe lung was pushed towards the diaphragm and spine by the assistant with a sponge forceps when removing the stations 5 and 6 lymph nodes. b An example of resection of stations 5 and 6 lymph nodes, they were picked up with a suction and pushed to the dorsal side, then were separated from the aortic arch, arterial ligament, and pulmonary artery trunk. c Protection of left vagus nerve and left recurrent laryngeal nerve during the resection of station 4 L lymph node. d An example of the effect of the left-sided subcarinal lymph nodes exposure and the adjacent anatomical structure