title: Pneumonectomy for lung cancer: a further step in minimally invasive surgery.
abstract: Robotic lobectomies have been proven to be technically and oncologically feasible. To date, however, pneumonectomy is still considered as a too extensive resection to be performed by the da Vinci robotic system (Intuitive Surgical, Mountain View, CA). We describe 2 patients with centrally located non-small cell lung cancer requiring pneumonectomy and radical lymph node dissection. The operations, consisting of a left and a right pneumonectomy, were successfully performed by a totally video-assisted robotic approach. Tips and pitfalls in this latest innovation in the minimally invasive surgery for lung cancer are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Division of Thoracic Surgery, European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy. lorenzo.spaggiari@ieo.it
authors.forename: Lorenzo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Spaggiari
authors.forename: Domenico
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Galetta
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019060:Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D011013:Pneumonectomy / Q000379:methods*; D013908:Thoracotomy / Q000379:methods*