Postoperative morphine consumption and anaesthetic management of patients undergoing video-assisted or robotic-assisted lung resection: a prospective, propensity score-matched study

Surgery is the gold standard treatment for early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Thoracotomy use is decreasing worldwide due to the emergence of minimally invasive approaches, such as video-assisted (VATS) and robot-assisted (RATS) thoracic surgeries. VATS is associated with lower postoperative pain and better quality of life compared to anterolateral muscle-sparing thoracotomy (1). Furthermore, several retrospective cohort studies and meta-analyses of non-randomised studies have shown significant reduction in the morbidity, especially due to respiratory complications (2-6). Despite these advantages of VATS, certain limitations of this technique, such as the steep learning curve, challenging hand-eye coordination, lack of instrument flexibility, two-dimensional vision, and some uncertainty regarding the quality of lymph node dissection that can be achieved using VATS, may still hinder its development (7)