Uniportal thoracoscopic sublobar anatomical resections for small pulmonary nodules

OBJECTIVES: The study aims to compare the thoracoscopic lobectomy and segmentectomy outcomes. BACKGROUND: Lobectomy is considered the standard treatment method for operable non-small cell lung cancer. Recent studies have suggested that segmentectomy seems to be an acceptable alternative to lobectomy for surgical management of early-stage non-small cell lung cancer. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This retrospective study included 475 patients who underwent thoracoscopic anatomical resection at the Thoracic Surgery Department at University Hospital Bratislava for malignant or benign pathology from October 2012 to December 2021. Thoracoscopic lobectomy was offered to 438 patients, and 37 were treated by thoracoscopic segmentectomy. RESULTS: We recorded no difference between groups considering age and gender. The most common findings in the thoracoscopic lobectomy and segmentectomy groups were primary lung cancer (73.44 %) and pulmonary metastases (59.5 %). Thoracoscopic lobectomy was associated with longer operative time (80.00 vs 110.00 min; p<0.001) and postoperative hospital stay (3.00 vs 4.00 days; p<0.001). Both procedures were associated with a similar incidence of both intraoperative (0 % vs 4.8 %; p=0.394) and postoperative complications (16 % vs 23 %; p=0.353). CONCLUSION: Thoracoscopic segmentectomy is a safe and effective procedure. This technique is a viable alternative to thoracoscopic lobectomy in indicated cases. It is still not accepted as a standard procedure for lung cancer, and we would like to start a discussion on this topic (Tab. 5, Fig. 2, Ref. 20). Text in PDF www.elis.sk