title: Posterolateral thoracotomy without muscle division: a new approach to complex procedures.
abstract: Today, there is a strong increase in video-assisted thoracic surgery; however, there are still some diseases and interventions that need a wide pleural cavity exposure (i.e. sulcus tumours and extended resections). These complex procedures are usually performed via a standard posterolateral thoracotomy, which is a good approach but has significant disadvantage due to pain and difficulty coughing. We propose a new thoracotomy that avoids a dorsal muscle division but has the same intrathoracic exposure as a posterolateral thoracotomy.
authors: Department of General Thoracic Surgery,  Virgen Macarena University Hospital, Seville,  Spain.
authors: Jesus
authors: J
authors: Loscertales
authors: Miguel
authors: M
authors: Congregado
authors: Sergio
authors: S
authors: Moreno
authors: Rafael
authors: R
authors: Jimenez-Merchan
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000601:surgery*; D013896:Thoracic Diseases / Q000601:surgery*; D020775:Thoracic Surgery, Video-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D013908:Thoracotomy / Q000379:methods*