%0 Journal Article
%T Uniportal VATS: the first German experience
%A Diego Gonzalez-Rivas
%A Harun Badakhshi
%A Jens C. R¨ąckert
%A Jens Neudecker
%A Mahmoud Ismail
%A Marc Swierzy
%A Melanie Helmig
%J SCIE-indexed Journal
%D 2014
%R 10.3978/j.issn.2072-1439.2014.10.15
%X The development of video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) over the past two decades has led to a significant shift in the management of an increasing number of thoracic pathologies. The procedure gained acceptance due to its clinical benefits in comparison to the conventional thoracic procedures, this is true too for the economic context (1-6). VATS is associated with less pain, decreased general complications and shorter hospital stay (7,8). VATS reduces surgical trauma and maintains the oncological principles of traditional open procedures (9). VATS leads to a fast postoperative recovery which allows the earlier administration of adjuvant therapy when necessary (10-13). A further development of the 2-3 trocar VATS with a utility incision for major lung resections is the uniportal VATS. The first description of this technique took place in 1998 and concerned a series of six patients, five wedge resections and one foreign bodies removal (14). This paved the way for the development of more complex uniportal procedures for a range of thoracic and mediastinal pathologies. This first progress of uniportal VATS was mainly pioneered by Prof. Gaetano Rocco from the National Cancer Institute, Naples, Italy. Between 2003 and 2006, uniportal VATS was performed for pleural effusion, pleurodesis, pleural and mediastinal biopsies, lung wedge resections, and mediastinal pathologies (15-17) A milestone was the first report on a major lung resection with radical lymphadenectomy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), by Dr. Gonzalez-Rivas from CoruŁża University Hospital in Spain (18), followed by complex uniportal VATS lung resections including pneumonectomy, segmentectomy, bronchoplastic procedures and chest wall resection (18-21). The latest development was a lobectomy in a non-intubated patient by uniportal VATS (22). The implementation of uniportal technique into the clinical practice is spreading globally. Especially, a strong trend in research and practice of uniportal VATS is ongoing in Asia (23). The initial clinical outcomes and short-term results are encouraging, and more long term data is awaited (23,24)
%U http://jtd.amegroups.com/article/view/3376/html