title: The role of VATS in the staging of non small cell lung cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Since determining of prognosis and treatment method is related to accurate evaluation of TNM staging of non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), we aimed to evaluate the role of Video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) in staging of NSCLC.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study was performed on 40 patients with NSCLC who had undergone preoperative staging and were candidate for curative surgery between 2008-2010. They underwent VATS immediately before the surgery. After performing VATS, the patients underwent thoracotomy by posterolateral incision unless any criteria of inoperability were present. Diagnostic accuracy of VATS for confirmation or modification of preoperative staging was evaluated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  M/F ratio was 21/19. Mean age of the patients was 57.2 ± 16.64 yrs. The most common symptom was coughing in 90% of patients. 72.5% of the patients had endobronchial mass and only for 27.5% tissue sample was obtained by transthoracic needle biopsy (TTNB) method. After performing VATS, 6 patients were excluded from surgery (3 cases (7.5%) due to seeding plural metastasis, 2 cases (5%) due to N2 involvement and one case (2.5%) due to satellite lesion in other lobes). Other 34 patients underwent surgery. Surgical resection was performed successfully in 31 cases (77.5%), but in 3 cases (7.5%) due to adhesion to hillum of the lung tumor was not resectable. According to the above results, VATS diagnosing accuracy was 92.5%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  VATS can help to determine TNM staging and prevent unnecessary thoracotomy in some patients and we recommend this method for accurate staging of NSCLC.
authors: Department of Thoracic Surgery, Cardiothoracic Surgery and Transplant Research Center, Imam Reza Hospital, Mashhad, Iran.
authors: Reza
authors: R
authors: Bagheri
authors: Alireza
authors: A
authors: Tavassoli
authors: Seyed Ziaollah
authors: SZ
authors: Haghi
authors: Mehdi Abasi
authors: MA
authors: Sahebi
authors: Noora
authors: N
authors: Bigdeli
keywords: Diagnostic accuracy; TNM staging; video-assisted thoracic surgery
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