New approach to lung cancer surgery

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

A review shows that the minimally invasive approach to surgery in lung cancer has many benefits.
Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) involves making four small incisions through which instruments and viewing camera are inserted, enabling cancerous lung tissue to be removed. At Cedars Sinai Medical Center, VATS is now offered to most patients needing lung cancer surgery. Now doctors from this hospital report back on their experience with a group of 1,100 patients.

VATS offers the same survival rate as open lung surgery. It is associated with few complications - only seven cases had to be converted to open surgery because of bleeding. The in-hospital stay is shorter and patients can get back to active life far quicker (two patients were playing tennis within a week of surgery, two more were back playing golf seven days later). The only problem is that VATS is technically demanding and doctors may not feel confident performing it till they have had a lot of experience. However, there is an increase in the number of centers carrying out VATS around the world.

Source
Annals of Thoracic Surgery February 2006