Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery lobectomy – early experience

Introduction: Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) lobectomy is the anatomical resection of a whole lobe of the lung followed by removal of the lymph nodes from the mediastinum using a thoracoscope and an access incision (small thoracotomy ≤ 5 cm) without using the rib spreader. Aim: To present the early experience with VATS lobectomy. Material and methods: Five patients were treated surgically using the VATS technique of anatomical lung resection at the 2 nd Department of Surgery, Pavol Jozef Safarik University, University Hospital of L. Pasteur, Kosice, (Slovak Republic) within 12 months from 10.2008 to 10.2009. Lobectomy was performed in 4 patients and pneumonectomy in 1 patient. Results: The mean operating time was 120 min (range 80-170 min). Following lobectomy a drain was inserted into the pleural cavity in 4 cases, whereas there was no drainage after 1 pneumonectomy. Drains were removed 2-5 days after the surgery. Four patients suffered from lung carcinoma (1 squamous cell carcinoma, 3 adenocarcinomas); 1 patient had chondroid hamartoma. Postoperative condition was good in all patients. There were no early complications and patients were released home on the 6 th postoperative day on average. Conclusions: The advantages of VATS lobectomy have been widely discussed. There is a consensus that in elderly patients with non-small cell lung cancer VATS lobectomy accompanied by mediastinal lymphadenectomy reduces the incidence of complications after the surgery and patients recover faster.