Abstract: Objective: To evaluate the status of lymphatic metastasis on the 3-FL, the key point, the difficulty, the indication, and the complication of the method of 3-FL. Methods : Statistical analysis and comparison were performed on 69 patients who underwent the radical operations for esophageal cancer. Results : The rate of metastatic lymphatic nodes (MLN) was 4.7% of all resected lymphatic nodes (LN). The average of resected LN was 40 in the patients. The rate of MLN in the lower cervical field was 71.4%, 12.8%, 12.5% originated from upper, middle and lower section of pectoral esophagus respectively, account for 64.3%, 3/.5% and 50.0% in pectoral field respectively, and 7.0%, 35.9% and 62.5% in the upper abdominal field respectively. 27.7% of all positive MLN were along with both of recurrent laryngeal nerve (1LN), 26.9% of all MLN were among the LN along with the left gastric artery and 12.3% among the LN over clavicle. 67.0% of all positive MLN were among three fields above that was considered as the key point to 3-FL. RLN was considered as the difficulty. There are marked difference (!<0.005) of the rate of the MLN to the lower cervical field. Upper and middle pectoral section suffered was considered as the first indication to 3-FL. The complication of 3-FL was not more than that of 2-FL. Conclusion : To clear the MLN originated from the upper and the middle pectoral esophageal cancer is considered as the first preferred indication to take 3-FL.