Background: The purpose of this study is to confirm the safety and validity of video-assisted thoracic surgical simultaneously stapled subsegmentectomy (simultaneously stapling of all subsegmental bronchi and vessels in their natural construction).
Methods: The clinicopathologic information of the 10 patients who underwent video-assisted thoracic surgical simultaneously stapled subsegmentectomy for primary lung cancer (6) and metastatic lung tumor (4) were reviewed retrospectively. The patient population consisted of 7 men and 3 women with a mean age of 70.2 years.
Results: Median operative time was 201 minutes. Average blood loss was 76 ml. Mean duration of thoracic drainage was 3 days. There was no surgical mortality. Recurrence was diagnosed in 2 of 6 lung cancer patients (each of contralateral lung metastasis and brain metastasis), and 1 of 2 died 26 months after the operation. All patients have been followed for a mean period of 30.4 months with no local recurrence.
Conclusions: Video-assisted thoracic surgical simultaneously stapled subsegmentectomy is safe and may be an acceptable alternative to segmentectomy, and wedge resection for strictly selective patients with peripheral lung tumors.