Video-assisted thoracic surgery lobectomy reduces the morbidity after surgery for stage I non-small cell lung cancer.
OBJECTIVE
We conducted this study to evaluate the surgical invasiveness and the safety of video-assisted thoracic surgery lobectomy for stage I lung cancer.


METHODS
Video-assisted thoracic surgery lobectomies were performed on 43 patients with clinical stage IA non-small cell lung cancer. We compared the surgical invasiveness parameters with 42 patients who underwent lobectomy by conventional thoracotomy.


RESULTS
Intraoperative blood loss was significantly less than that in the conventional thoracotomy group (151+/-149 vs. 362+/-321 g, p<0.01). Chest tube duration (3.0+/-2.1 vs. 3.9+/-1.9 days) was significantly shorter than those in the conventional thoracotomy group (p<0.05). The visual analog scale which was evaluated as postoperative pain level on postoperative day 7, maximum white blood count and C-reactive protein level were significantly lower than those in the conventional thoracotomy group (p<0.05). The morbidity rate was significantly lower than that in the conventional thoracotomy group (25.6% vs. 47.6%, p<0.05). Sputum retention and arrhythmia were significantly less frequent than in the conventional thoracotomy group (p<0.05). We experienced no operative deaths in both groups.


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that video-assisted thoracic surgery lobectomy for stage I non-small cell lung cancer patients is a less invasive and safer procedure with a lower morbidity rate compared with lobectomy by thoracotomy.
Muraoka
Masashi
M
Division of Surgical Oncology, Department of Translational Medical Sciences, Nagasaki Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki, Japan.
Oka
Tadayuki
T
Akamine
Shinji
S
Tagawa
Tsutomu
T
Nakamura
Akihiro
A
Hashizume
Satoshi
S
Matsumoto
Keitaro
K
Araki
Masato
M
Tagawa
Yutaka
Y
Nagayasu
Takeshi
T
D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011013:Pneumonectomy / Q000379:methods*; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000517:prevention & control; D020775:Thoracic Surgery, Video-Assisted