• TsukazanMaria Teresa RuizMTRDivision of Thoracic Surgery, Hospital São Lucas Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil., Ricardo Mingarini Terra, Álvaro Vigo, Gustavo Almeida Fortunato, Spencer Marcantonio Camargo, Humberto Alves de Oliveira, Antero Gomes Neto, and Darcy Ribeiro Pinto Filho.
• Division of Thoracic Surgery, Hospital São Lucas Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
• Eur J Cardiothorac Surg. 2018 May 1; 53 (5): 993-998.

ObjectivesThe use of video-assisted anatomical lung resection is increasingly widespread for lung cancer and non-neoplastic diseases, showing excellent results. Nonetheless, a comparative analysis of the benefits of this technique has yet to be conducted in Latin America, a region with a completely different case mix from the USA or Europe. The purpose of this study was to compare the outcomes of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) and open thoracotomy (OT) for anatomical lung resection in patients included on the Brazilian Society of Thoracic Surgery (BSTS) database.MethodsUsing propensity score matching, we conducted an analysis of 1355 patients who underwent anatomical lung resection (704 OT and 651 VATS) registered in the BSTS database between August 2015 and December 2016. Propensity score matching was performed using the following baseline characteristics: age at surgery, gender, comorbidities, pulmonary lung function, type of resection and cancer and non-cancer diagnosis. The propensity score-matched sample comprised a well-matched group of 890 patients. The main outcomes tested were mortality, complications and major cardiopulmonary complications based on the European Society of Thoracic Surgeons (ESTS) database definitions and terminology.ResultsStandardized differences of means and proportions suggested that an adequate balance had been achieved. Major cardiopulmonary complications were shown to be more frequent in patients who underwent OT (16.0% compared with 9.2% in VATS patients; odds ratio  = 1.87, 95% confidence interval 1.25-2.80) and the overall complications rate was higher among patients who underwent OT (30.1% compared with 21.8% in VATS patients; odds ratio = 1.55, 95% confidence interval 1.17-2.05). No statistically significant difference in mortality rate was observed between OT (2.5%) and VATS (1.8%) (odds ratio = 1.38, 95% confidence interval 0.54-3.50).ConclusionsIn Brazil, the rate of complications associated with minimally invasive surgery (VATS) for anatomical lung resection is significantly lower than that of conventional OT.

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