Clinical analysis on single-direction uniportal thoracoscopic lobectomy

Objective o explore the feasibility and clinical characteristics of single-direction uniport video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (SU-VATS) lobectomy for lung cancer. Methods Clinical data of consecutive lobectomy with systematic lymph nodes dissection by the same surgeon between January 2016 and December 2017 was retrospectively analyzed. Suitable cases were divided into SU-VATS, conventional U-VATS, and multiple-port VATS (M-VATS) group, with 60 patients in each group. The operation time, intraoperative blood loss, number and stations of dissected lymph nodes, postoperative chest drainage, complications, and hospital stay were compared between the groups. Results There were no significant differences in terms of age, co-morbidity, diameter and location of the tumor (P>0.05) between the groups. There were no conversion to thoracotomy and short-term mortality, and the surgical margins were all negative. The operation time of SU-VATS group was significantly shorter than that of the other two groups [(100.6±20.3) min vs (123.8±27.4) min vs (119.5±26.4) min, P 0.05). On the 5th postoperative day, the pain scale in SU-VATS group was still lower than that in U-VATS group [(3.2±1.0) vs (3.8±1.2), P 0.05). There were no significant differences between the groups in terms of number and stations of the dissected lymph nodes, and operation-related complications (P>0.05). Conclusions SU-VATS lobectomy for lung cancer is reliable, followed by certain advantages as compared with U-VATS and M-VATS. Key words: Single-direction; Uniport; Video-assisted thoracic surgery; Lobectomy