title: Therapeutic evaluation of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery versus open thoracotomy for pediatric pulmonary hydatid disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Hydatid disease is a severe and widespread human cestode infection, and in children, the lung is the most commonly infected organ. In current practice, the standard surgical procedure for the removal of pulmonary hydatid cysts is thoracotomy; therefore, we evaluated the efficacy and safety of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) to treat pediatric pulmonary hydatid disease. To our knowledge, this is the first and large sample comparative study of VATS and thoracotomy for pediatric pulmonary hydatid disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study, we retrospectively reviewed 44 (61.1 %) pediatric patients who underwent VATS, and 28 (38.9 %) pediatric patients who underwent conventional thoracotomy from January 2005 to June 2012. Perioperative data, including basic characteristics of patients, the length of hospital stay, intraoperative blood loss, thoracic intubation indwelling time, and complications were compared between VATS and thoracotomy in 72 children with pulmonary hydatid disease.
  
  
  RESULTS
  VATS was found to be a safe technique for the treatment of pediatric pulmonary hydatid disease, with zero intraoperative deaths. In the VATS and thoracotomy groups, the hospital stay durations were 10.50 ± 1.20 days and 17.30 ± 2.75 days, respectively, and occurrence rates of complications were 9.1 % (4/44) and 17.9 % (5/28), respectively. The hospital stays were shorter and the hospitalization costs was reduced for the patients who underwent VATS compared with conventional thoracotomy (P = 0.001). Although no statistically significant difference in the recurrence rates (P = 0.958) and complication incidence (P = 0.273) between the two surgical groups was observed, less intraoperative bleeding, shorter thoracic intubation indwelling time and reduced postoperative pain were observed in the patients who underwent VATS (P = 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study demonstrates the feasibility and safety of VATS for pediatric pulmonary hydatid disease treatment, providing a practice-changing concept for the treatment of this disease in the community. VATS can be a promising therapeutic tool, by overcoming many of the drawbacks of thoracotomy, and can be used as an alternative to thoracotomy for selected pediatric patients.
authors: People's Hospital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Urumqi, Xinjiang, 830001, People's Republic of China. xjmajinshan@sina.com.
authors: Jinshan
authors: J
authors: Ma
authors: People's Hospital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Urumqi, Xinjiang, 830001, People's Republic of China.
authors: Xiaolei
authors: X
authors: Wang
authors: People's Hospital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Urumqi, Xinjiang, 830001, People's Republic of China.
authors: Xaokat
authors: X
authors: Mamatimin
authors: People's Hospital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Urumqi, Xinjiang, 830001, People's Republic of China.
authors: Nuerlan
authors: N
authors: Ahan
authors: People's Hospital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Urumqi, Xinjiang, 830001, People's Republic of China.
authors: Kang
authors: K
authors: Chen
authors: Secondary Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, 250000, People's Republic of China.
authors: Chuanliang
authors: C
authors: Peng
authors: People's Hospital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Urumqi, Xinjiang, 830001, People's Republic of China.
authors: Yongwei
authors: Y
authors: Yang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D016063:Blood Loss, Surgical; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004445:Echinococcosis, Pulmonary / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D017721:Hospital Costs; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000209:etiology; D012008:Recurrence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D020775:Thoracic Surgery, Video-Assisted / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000191:economics; D013908:Thoracotomy / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000191:economics; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Children; Pulmonary hydatid disease; Thoracotomy; Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery