The Application of Uniportal Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Anatomical Segmentectomy for Lung Resection: A Retrospective Clinical Study

Background Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) is a new area of exploration and evolution in thoracic minimal invasive surgery. The uniportal VATS approach has become popular during lung resection for small nodules and ground glass lesions. Our objective is to investigate the efficacy, availability and safety of uniportal VATS anatomical segmentectomy compared with conventional VATS in patients for lung resection. Methods Surgical patients of perioperative period who admitted and underwent uniportal, two-port and conventional three-port VATS segmentectomy were analyzed and compared retrospectively during the year 2017 to 2018. Results During the research period, of 111 patients who had VATS anatomical segmentectomy, 38 underwent uniportal, 43 underwent two-port, and 30 underwent three-port VATS. Four patients underwent conversion to thoracotomy. There were no postoperative mortalities, and there were no significant differences among the three groups in surgical outcomes, including operative time, blood loss, conversions to thoracotomy, drainage time and volume, lymph node dissection, postoperative complications and hospital stay. The pain scores of visual analog scale (VAS) significantly decreased in uniportal group when operation is finished (P < 0.05). Conclusion This study demonstrates that uniportal VATS anatomical segmentectomy is a quite safe surgical technology, as well as feasible, which can cause reduced postoperative pain and less surgical trauma compared to conventional VATS. More experiences and observations of large samples are on the way.