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Vol.45 No.3 contents | Japanese/English |
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Minimal/Standard Thoracotomy for Peripheral Type of Small Lung Cancer
Tomoyuki Goya1, Hisashi Tsukada1, Hidefumi Takei11Department of Surgery, Kyorin University School of Medicine, Japan
Over 10 years have elapsed since video-assisted thoracic surgery and thoracoscopic surgery came into clinical use and the characteristics have become clarified. With the use of VATS, damage to pulmonary function in the early postoperative stage is minimized and, within one week postoperatively, dosages of analgesics can be kept low and the period of hospital stay can be shortened in comparison with conventional thoracotomy. These features are generally recognized. At present, thoracotomy that used to be called "standard" has changed significantly to muscle sparing thoracotomy or to minimal thoracotomy and these procedures have enabled a great decrease in invasiveness. Comparative studies VATS and minimal thoracotomy have revealed no differences in invasiveness and postoperative quality of life between the two procedures. Recent data illustrate the need for critical evaluation of video-assisted thoracic surgery before the procedure is accepted as a superior approach for thoracotomy, based on unproved advantages. With the wide use of lung cancer CT screening systems, it can be anticipated that small or even minute lung cancer cases will increase in the near future. Consequently, the establishment of a surgical procedure with radicality and less invasiveness will be strongly demanded for lung cancer.
key words: Video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS), Standard thoracotomy, Minimal thoracotomy, Minimally invasiveness, Lung cancer of stage IA
JJLC 45 (3): 281-288, 2005
