Initial experience in uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) for major lung resections—Australia’s first uniportal VATS teaching program

Abstract

The natural evolution of thoracic surgery has seen access to the thoracic cavity progress from open procedures to minimally invasive thoracoscopic techniques, viz; video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). The latter includes multi-port VATS, which is well-established around the world and likely the standard of care for many thoracic conditions. The clear advantages for VATS include a significant reduction in post-operative pain and associated chest wall paraesthesia, morbidity and mortality, length of hospital stay with hastened recovery, whilst providing improved cosmetics. More recently, uniportal VATS surgery is gaining in popularity for the perceived benefits associated with breach of only a single intercostal space, while benefiting the surgeon with a view, which is similar to that of open surgery. In this article we describe our experience in establishing Australia’s first uniportal VATS teaching program with the proctorship of an internationally recognised expert and deliver the results of our first 12 months performing uniportal surgery.