Objective To evaluate the safety and advantage in lymph node dissection of Ivor-Lewis esophagectomy in patients with esophageal cancer. Methods Clinical and pathological data of 78 patients with esophageal cancer who underwent Ivor-Lewis esophagectomy between September 2012 and March 2014 were collected and analyzed. Another 86 esophageal cancer patients who underwent esophagectomy of Sweet procedure during the same period were regarded as the controls. Duration of surgery, intra-operative blood loss, incidence of main complications and positive rate of lymph node were compared between the two groups. Results The duration of surgery in Ivor-Lewis group [(254.5±38.4) minutes] was longer than that in the Sweet group [(216.7±31.3) minutes]; and the average intra-operative blood loss in Ivor-Lewis group [(165.5±40.3) mL] was higher than that in the Sweet group [(148.7±35.4) mL]; the differences were significant (P < 0.01). Incidence of hoarseness in Ivor-Lewis group was significantly higher than that in Sweet group (P < 0.05), while incidences of other comp lications between the two groups were similar (P > 0.05). The proportion of patients with positive lymph nodes in Ivor-Lewis group (60.3%, 47/78) was significantly higher than that in Sweet group (26.7%, 23/86) (P < 0.05). Average number of lymph nodes dissected in Ivor-Lewis group (21.5±5.3) was significantly higher than that in Sweet group (10.6±4.1). Lymph nodes along the right recurrent laryngeal nerve was the most common metastasis in patients of Ivor-Lewis group, while lymph nodes in that area in Sweet group patients could hardly be dissected. Conclusions Ivor-Lewis esophagectomy is a safe surgical procedure for esophageal cancer. Ivor-Lewis procedure has more advantages in lymph node dissection than Sweet procedure.