Video-assisted lobectomy shortens hospital length of stay

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters Health) - Hospital length of stay is shorter and perioperative morbidity is significantly lower with video-assisted thoracic surgical (VATS) lobectomy for the treatment of stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) than with open thoracotomy and lobectomy.

Those findings were reported at CHEST 2008, the 74th annual international assembly of the American College of Chest Physicians, by surgeons at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Walter Scott described a series of 140 lobectomy patients, 74 of whom underwent VATS and 66 who underwent open thoracotomy. Five of the 74 VATS procedures (6.7%) were converted to open thoracotomies.

There was one death in each group.

Median length of stay was 7 days with open thoracotomy and 4 days with VATS. Median duration of chest tube placement was 5 days with open chest surgery and 4 days with VATS.

The percentage of patients with any complication was 35% with VATS and 42% with open surgery. The mean number of lymph nodes retrieved per patient was 14.7 with VATS and 18.1 with open thoracotomy.

"The most exciting finding is that our patients go home much sooner when they have VATS compared to open surgery," Dr. Scott said. "Minimally invasive surgical techniques have been used for many decades, but only recently have we applied the technology to patients with lung cancer," he pointed out.

"Although this study addressed short-term clinical outcomes only, the results support the recommendation that VATS lobectomy is an acceptable if not preferable surgical treatment compared to thoracotomy and lobectomy for patients with clinical stage I NSCLC," Dr. Scott asserted.

Copyright © 2008 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.