Respirology : official journal of the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology
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Video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) lobectomy for primary lung cancer is considered minimally invasive. However, different procedures may be used for the VATS lobectomy, from complete videoscopic (CV) surgery to a technique similar to the muscle-sparing thoracotomy. We divided patients into two groups based on the surgical approach and analysed the outcomes. ⋯ Two methods of VATS cause less surgical damage than PL. CV, in particular, causes less damage to pulmonary function than PL, and achieves good postoperative quality of life.