Videothoracoscopic management of the solitary pulmonary nodule: a single-institution study on 429 cases.
BACKGROUND
Solitary pulmonary nodules (SPNs) sometimes are malignant. We evaluated our 9-year experience in the videothoracoscopic (VATS) management of indeterminate SPNs in order to identify malignant nodules on the basis of clinical and radiologic characteristics.


METHODS
From July 1992 to May 2001, 429 patients (276 men and 153 women) were treated by VATS because of a SPN.


RESULTS
Three hundred and seventy lesions were benign (86.24%): mean age, 49 years; mean diameter, 1.8 cm; evidence of calcifications, 43 cases (11.62%); smokers, 201 cases (54.32%); history of previous cancer, 11 cases (2.97%). Fifty-nine lesions (13.75%) were malignant (52 NSCLC and seven metastases): mean age, 59 years; mean diameter, 2.31 cm; evidence of calcifications, two cases (3.38%); smokers, 40 cases (67.79%); history of previous cancer, 12 cases (20.33%). Solitary pulmonary nodules were succesfully resected by VATS in 333 (77.62%) cases (309 benign and 24 malignant). Minithoracotomy was necessary to locate the SPNs in 93 (21.67%) cases (61 benign and 32 malignant). Multivariate analysis showed that age greater than 55 years (OR 4.9), diameter of the lesion greater than 2 cm (OR 4.7), history of previous cancer (OR 17.7), and need for conversion to thoracotomy (OR 6.6) to locate the nodule were statistically significant factors in order to identify malignant SPNs.


CONCLUSIONS
VATS represents the approach of choice for both diagnosis and treatment of SPNs. The probability of malignancy for SPNs increases with size of the lesion, age of the patients, history of previous cancer, and the need for thoracotomy to locate the nodule.
Thoracic Surgery Unit, Carlo Forlanini Hospital, Rome, Italy. gcardillo@scamilloforlanini.rm.it
Giuseppe
G
Cardillo
Mohamed
M
Regal
Francesco
F
Sera
Marco
M
Di Martino
Luigi
L
Carbone
Francesco
F
Facciolo
Massimo
M
Martelli
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D003074:Solitary Pulmonary Nodule / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*; D020775:Thoracic Surgery, Video-Assisted