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Vol.46 No.1 contents | Japanese/English |
 | Full Text of PDF (970K) Article in Japanese |
- Review -
Standard Lobectomy and Lymph Node Dissection Procedure for Lung Cancer
Shun-ichi Watanabe11Division of Thoracic Surgery, National Cancer Center Hospital, Japan
Since Cahan (1960) reported successful cases of a "radical lobectomy" with hilar and mediastinal dissection, this procedure has been the standard surgical treatment for lung cancer. Small posterolateral thoracotomy preserving the anterior serratus muscle is the best way in terms of safety, quality, time and stress of surgery, and minimal postoperative hospital stay. Furthermore, surgeons can easily deal with many difficult situations, such as severe adhesion, bronchovascular sleeve resection, chest wall invasion, or massive bleeding by this thoracotomy. We use electric cautery to cut and dissect the sheath of pulmonary vessels to reduce the amount of bleeding and time. Mediastinal dissection is completed by skeletonizing the anatomic structures.
key words: Lung cancer, Lobectomy, Mediastinal lymph node dissection, Posterolateral thoracotomy
JJLC 46 (1): 15-21, 2006
