Thoracoscopic or robotic surgery? No matter, as long as they have good results

Abstract

Despite the encouraging results, minimally invasive thoracic surgery is still used in a minority of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, currently in about one third of all major pulmonary resections (1). Since the 1990s video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) has gradually become more and more popular and, over the past two decades, it has been gradually accepted as an alternative option to open thoracotomy for selected patients. Compared with thoracotomy, VATS lobectomy is associated with less pain, shorter chest tube duration, fewer cardiac complications (especially atrial fibrillation), lower rate of infectious complications (i.e., pneumonia), lower incidence of blood transfusion, shorter length of hospitalization and faster recovery (2-4). Another significant advantage of VATS has been reported in high risk patients, particularly in those with preoperative poor pulmonary function (5).