Innovations : technology and techniques in cardiothoracic and vascular surgery
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Innovations (Phila) · Jan 2012
Lobectomy for non-small cell lung cancer: differences in morbidity and mortality between thoracotomy and thoracoscopy.
Until the last decade, lobectomy by thoracotomy (TL) was the "gold standard" for treatment of patients with operable lung carcinoma. Today, video-assisted thoracic surgery lobectomy (VATS-L) has become accepted as a safe and effective procedure to treat early-stage lung cancer. We analyzed and compared postoperative complications, hospital stay, morbidity, and mortality after TL and VATS-L in patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). ⋯ Our clinical impression is that VATS-L offers advantages over TL in terms of lower morbidity, fewer and less serious complications, shorter hospital stays, and the possibility to operate on patients with more comorbidities.