Novel perspectives in the surgical treatment of posterior mediastinal masses

Abstract

Posterior mediastinal lesions represent a relatively small proportion of the case loads in thoracic surgery. As the minimally-invasive approaches to the lung and anterior mediastinum continued to advance and improve, many of those techniques can also be employed for posterior mediastinal lesions. Single-port video-assisted thoracic surgery and robot-assisted thoracic surgery are the two leading techniques in this field. Due to the lower incidence of posterior mediastinal lesions and the heterogeneity of the pathologies, evidence for their application is limited. Nevertheless, the available literature demonstrated high safety and effectiveness of these new approaches for surgical management of posterior mediastinal lesions with satisfactory short-term outcomes comparable to their conventional counterparts. Based on the promising early results, more evidence is expected to consolidate the role of these new techniques for posterior mediastinal lesions.