Abstract: Objective: To study the characteristics of peripheral celiac trunk lymph node metas-tases of thoracic esophageal carcinoma and their influence on patient prognosis and to find a reasonable dissecting range for regional celiac trunk lymph nodes. Method: The clinical materials of 241 patients who underwent resection of thoracic esophageal carcinoma were analyzed retrospectively. Results: Ab-dominal lymph node metastases were found in 78 of the 241 treated patients (32.4%). In 3181 abdomi-nal lymph nodes dissected, metastasis existed in 312 (9.8%). The metastatic rate to lymph nodes nearthe common hepatic artery, celiac trunk and hepatoduodenal ligament was 6.6%, 6.9%, and 6.3%, re-spectively. Tumor site, tumor differentiation and the depth of tumor invasion were factors influencing abdominal lymph node metastases, but the length of tumor was not a factor. The postoperative abdomi-nal local recurrence rate was 5.4%. The 3-year survival rate of the patients with lymph node metastasiswas 42.3%, much lower than that of patients with no lymph node metastasis (51.9%). Conclusion: Ab-dominal lymph node metastasis was one of the key factors affecting prognosis of the patients. Extensive dissection of the regional celiac trunk lymph nodes could decrease the postoperative local recurrence rate.