Technical difficulties and extending the indications for VATS lobectomy

Despite a wide acceptance of the video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) lobectomies as the standard treatment for early stage of lung cancer (1,2), there are still quite a lot of uncertainty in relation to the potential difficulties and contraindications for the thoracoscopic major pulmonary resections. At the moment there is no agreement about limitations of the method. We have decided to investigate how the expanding of indications for the VATS anatomic pulmonary resection can affect the immediate outcomes