• Emmanouil I Kapetanakis, Tatiana Sidiropoulou, Ioannis P Tomos, Christos F Kampolis, Thomas Raptakis, and Periklis I Tomos.
• Department of Thoracic Surgery, "Attikon" University Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 12462 Athens, Greece.
• Medicina (Kaunas). 2023 Feb 22; 59 (3).

AbstractMedical thoracoscopy/pleuroscopy has become, after bronchoscopy, the second most commonly utilized endoscopic procedure in interventional pulmonology. Due to their common origin, medical thoracoscopy/pleuroscopy and video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) are quite similar procedures technically. In contrast to the prevailing attitude that it should predominantly be performed by interventional pulmonologists, we believe that, like all hybrid-in-nature techniques, it should be implemented as part of a combined specialist care service/team. Herewith, we describe our attempt to establish a multidisciplinary pleural disease program during a difficult economic period for our country, comprising thoracic surgeons, pulmonologists and anesthesiologists, all of whom brought in their experience, expertise and resources to establish and develop the service resulting in a hybridization of the technique, with, as reported, quite favorable results.

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