Beyond the limits: journey to feasible and safe uniportal VATS surgery for lung cancer

[摘要] When the readers review history, they can find fascinating facts and fathom the future direction of evolution. Lung cancer treatment has undergone the most dramatic evolution in the last century. The introduction of one-lung ventilation enables lung surgery safely, and the introduction of the thoracoscope opened the era of minimally invasive surgery. With the help of modern anesthesia, pulmonary resection, which was considered impossible, has changed as the primary choice of early-stage lung cancer treatment (1). Interestingly, pneumonectomy has remained the gold standard regardless of the size or location of the tumor for the first 30 years. Indeed, simple lobectomy for lung carcinoma was regarded as illogical, less surgical, and less anatomical (2). However, Shimkin et al. published the legendary article declaring equivalent survival and lesser morbidity of lobectomy compared to pneumonectomy. Afterward, the surgery paradigm changed from pneumonectomy to lobectomy (3).

[学科分类] 呼吸医学

[关键词] Uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic segmentectomy;uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (uniportal VATS);segmentectomy;minimally invasive surgery