Thoracic surgery clinics
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Lobectomy with systematic lymph node sampling or dissection remains the mainstay of treatment of early stage non-small cell lung cancer. The use of video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) to perform lobectomy was first reported in 1992. ⋯ To overcome these limitations, robotic systems were developed during the last decades. This article reviews the technical aspects of robotic lobectomy using a VATS-based approach.
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Robotic surgery is safe and efficient, with similar survival rates to the open and video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) approaches. The surgeon can provide an R0 resection in patients with cancer. ⋯ The capital cost, service contract costs, and equipment costs have to be carefully considered and studied, and patient selection is critical. There are few achievable benefits of using a robotic system compared with VATS when performing a sympathotomy for patients with hyperhidrosis or a pulmonary wedge resection for tissue diagnosis for patients with interstitial lung disease.