title: Video-assisted thoracic surgery for pneumothorax: republication of a systematic review and a proposal by the guideline committee of the Japanese association for chest surgery 2014.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this consensus conference was to determine whether video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) improves clinical outcomes compared with conventional thoracotomy in patients undergoing surgery for pneumothorax, and to outline evidence-based recommendations for the use of VATS.
  
  
  METHODS
  Before the consensus conference, the best available evidence was reviewed, with systematic reviews, randomized trials, and nonrandomized trials all taken into consideration in descending order of validity and importance. At the consensus conference, evidence-based interpretative statements were created, and consensus processes were used to determine the ensuing recommendations. The Medical Information Network Distribution Service in Japan (Minds) system was used to label the levels of evidence for the references and the classes of recommendations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The consensus panel agreed upon the following statements and recommendations for patients with pneumothorax undergoing surgery: 1. VATS is broadly indicated as surgery for pneumothorax. 2. VATS is judged to be less invasive, as it results in minimal postoperative pain, the periods of chest tube placement and hospitalization are short, and it shows a trend toward early realization of social integration. 3. There is no difference in terms of safety and complications between VATS and open thoracotomy. 4. As it is anticipated that VATS will result in a higher recurrence rate than open thoracotomy, it may be desirable to add a supplemental procedure during surgery. In summary, VATS can be recommended as pneumothorax surgery (Recommendation grade: Level B).
authors.affiliation: Guidelines Committees of Japanese Association for Chest Surgery, Kyoto, Japan, taichiro@1997.jukuin.keio.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Taichiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Goto
authors.forename: Yoshihisa
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kadota
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mori
authors.forename: Shin-ichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yamashita
authors.forename: Hirotoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Horio
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nagayasu
authors.forename: Akinori
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Iwasaki
mesh_terms: D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000517:prevention & control; D011030:Pneumothorax / Q000601:surgery*; D012196:Review Literature as Topic; D013903:Thoracic Surgery / Q000592:standards*; D020775:Thoracic Surgery, Video-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D019616:Thoracic Surgical Procedures