Objective To investigate the feasibility, curative effect and perioperative treatments of lobectomy for pulmonary diseases by complete videoassisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). Methods Fiftysix patients of pulmonary diseases were treated with thoracoscopic lobectomy (including mediastinal and hilar lymph node dissection for malignant diseases) from March 2006 to November 2007 in our Department. Twelve right upper lobectomy, three right middle lobectomy, fifteen right lower lobectomy, nine left upper lobectomy, fourteen left lower lobectomy and three bilobectomy were carried out. The bilobectomy included one right upper and middle lobectomy, two right middle and lower lobectomy. Mediastinal and hilar lymph node dissection was simultaneously performed in the malignant cases. The feasibility, safety and postoperative complications were retrospectively analyzed. Results Fiftytwo patients (92.8%) were performed successfully by complete VATS. The median operative duration and blood loss were respectively 107±29min(from 45min to 168min) and 121±32 ml(from 50ml to 310ml). The incision in two cases (3.6%) were elongated to around 8 cm, the ribs were retracted, and the operations were completed by the help of VATS. Another two patients (3.6%) were changed to conventional thoracotomy for pneumonectomy or hemostasis. The postoperative pathology diagnosis was lung cancer in thirty nine, tuberculoma in seven, inflammatory pseudotumor in four, indurative angioma in four, bronchiectasis in one and metastasic chondrosarcoma in one. There was no surgical mortality. One case suffered from atelectasis in the middle lobe postoperatively and was cured by phlegm suction with bronchoscopy. Two air leakage healed automatically in three days. No other severe complications was observed. The average postoperative hospitalization was 8.9±3.1 d(from 8 d to 14 d). Conclusion Lobectomy for pulmonary diseases by complete VATS is technically fieasible, safe, minimally invasive with less complications and fast rehabilitation.
Objective To evaluate the safety，efficacy，short- and long-term clinical outcomes of complete video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery （VATS） lobectomy for non-small cell lung cancer （NSCLC）. Methods Clinical data of231 consecutive patients with NSCLC who underwent complete VATS lobectomy in the First Affiliated Hospital of NanjingMedical University between June 2006 and March 2011 were retrospective analyzed. There were 132 male and 99 femalepatients with their age of 15-81 （59.51±11.90） years. Preoperative cancer staging wasⅠa in 149 patients，Ⅰb in 50 patients，Ⅱa in 14 patients，Ⅱb in 13 patients and Ⅲa in 5 patients. There were 152 patients with adenocarcinoma，41 patients with squamous carcinoma，23 patients with bronchioalveolar carcinoma，5 patients with adenosquamous carcinoma，4 patients with large cell carcinoma，and 6 patients with other carcinoma. Follow-up data were statistically analyzed，and short-and long-term survival rates were calculated. Results No perioperative mortality was observed. Operation time was 60-370（199.14±51.04） minutes，and intraoperative blood loss was 10-2 300 （168.19±176.39） ml. Thirty-seven patients had postoperative complications including air leak，pulmonary infection，atelectasis，arrhythmia，subcutaneous emphysema andothers，who were all cured after conservative treatment. Mean number of dissected lymph nodes was 11.14±5.49，and meannumber of explored nodal stations was 3.66±1.52. There were 51 patients （22.08%） whose postoperative cancer staging wasmore advanced than preoperative cancer staging. Postoperative hospital stay was 3-36 （10.79±5.13） days. Primary causesof prolonged postoperative hospitalization included pulmonary air leak，pulmonary infection，preoperative concomitant chronic pulmonary diseases （COPD，asthma），and moderate to severe pulmonary dysfunction. A total of 228 patients werefollowed up for a mean duration of 40.83 months （22-82 months），and 3 patients were lost during follow-up. Overall 5-yearsurvival rates were 85.78%，52.54% and 32.70% for stageⅠ，stageⅡand stageⅢ-Ⅳpatients respectively. Five-year cancerfreesurvival rates were 80.00%，45.37% and 20.99% for stageⅠ，stageⅡand stageⅢ-Ⅳpatients respectively. ConclusionThe advantages of VATS lobectomy include smaller surgical incision，less injury and postoperative pain，quicker postoperative recovery and shorter hospital stay. Long-term survival rate is comparable to previous international and Chinese studies. VATS lobectomy can anatomically achieve complete tumor resection and systematic lymph node dissection. VATS lobectomy will become a standard surgical procedure for NSCLC patients.
Emphysema is a chronic progressive disease characterized by abnormal terminal bronchioles. Patients in end-stage have limited treatment. Lung volume reduction surgery(LVRS) is to remove the non-functional emphysematous lung tissue with the aim of palliating symptoms in selected patient with severe emphysema. It provides a new therapeutic method for emphysema. When LVRS is widely accepted after 1990s, a large number of institutions carried out the researches on surgical approaches, perioperative mortality, long-term efficacy and complications. Its targeted beneficial patients and surgical safety had been confirmed too. Bronchoscopic lung volume reduction (BLVR) successfully carried out on the basis of the development of LVRS and bronchoscopy. This article reviews the surgical approaches, safety and efficacy of LVRS and BLVR in patients with emphysema.
Objective To investigate the security and feasibility of silk ligating for pulmonary artery in video-assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy, and to summarize the clinical skills. Methods We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 68 patients underwent the video-assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy from April 2013 to March 2015. There were 49 males and 19 females with the mean age of 59.6±10.3 years, ranging from 38 to 76 years. We divided the patients into an ECR60W cut-up group (31 patients) and a silk ligation group (37 patients). There were 22 males and 9 females patients with the average age of 59.3±9.9 years with ECR60W. There were 27 males and 10 females patients with the average age of 59.9±10.5 years with silk ligation. We observed the effect of hemostasis, and analyzed the amount of bleeding loss during operation, postoperative suction drainage and the cost of operation material between the two groups. Results There were 4 patients out of 68 converted to the open lobectomy, and all of them used ECR60W. The application of silk ligation for pulmo-nary artery could effectively control bleeding loss and avoid massive amount of bleeding due to the vascular tear in opera-tions. Furthermore, the application can reduce the rate of severe complications such as massive bleeding resulting from postoperative silk ligation slippage. There was a statistical difference between the two groups on the cost of operation mate-rials (P < 0.01). Conclusions Silk ligation for pulmonary artery in video-assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy is simple and prac-tical to apply. Compared with the ECR60W, it can significantly reduce the cost of operation material. It's worth to popularize in clinic.
Objective To investigate the clinical value of using videoassisted thoracoscopic lobectomy（VATS lobectomy） to treat primary nonsmall cell lung cancer(NSCLC) so that the videoassisted thoracoscopic surgery(VATS) can be better used in clinic. Methods From September 2007 to December 2008, seventysix NSCLC patients were collected. Thirtyseven patients underwent VATS lobectomy(VATS group), 21 male and 16 female with an average age of 60.4 years. Among them 20 underwent videoassisted minithoracotomy lobectomy, and 17 underwent total thoracoscopic lobectomy. Thirtynine patients underwent conventional thoractomy(conventional thoracotomy group), 32 male and 7 female with an average age of 58.7 years. Perioperative clinical and laboratory parameters of the two groups were compared. Results There was no severe complication and perioperative mortality in both groups. There were statistical significances between VATS group and conventional thoracotomy group in incision length (7.6±1.9 cm vs. 28.5±3.6 cm, t=-31.390,P=0.000), postoperative dosage of dolantin(160±125 mg vs.232±101 mg，t=-2.789,P=0.007), postoperative chest tube time(chest tube output＞100ml,4.8±2.5 d vs. 8.1±3.2 d，t=-4.944,P=0.000） and postoperative hospitalization time(12.1±3.0 d vs. 15.7±4.7 d，t=-3.945,P=0.000). There was no statistical significance between two groups in operation time（t=1.732，P=0.087）, intraoperative blood loss（t=-1.645，P=0.105） and the number of lymph node dissection（t=-0.088，P=0.930）. The total hospitalization expenses in VATS group were higher than that in conventional thoracotomy group, but there was no statistical significance（t=1.303，P=0.197）. The serum levels of glucose at 1st day after operation（7.2±1.2 mmol/L vs. 8.4±2.2 mmol/L, t=5.603,P=0.000）and the total count of white blood cell (12.7±3.8×10.9/L vs. 15.1±5.9×10.9/L,t=5.082,P=0.004) in VATS group were significantly lower than that in conventional thoracotomy group. The prealbumin(PA) level in VATS group was significantly higher than that in conventional thoracotomy group（215.0±45.5 mg/L vs.147.3+50.8 mg/L,t=-7.931,P=0.000). Conclusion VATS lobectomy could clean lymph node completely. Its advantages include less postoperative trauma, lower acute phase response, mild pain, rapid recovery, shorter hospitalization time and less economic burden. It could be an operation approach for early NSCLC patients who have been strictly selected.