Abstract
Objective: To confirm the feasibility of video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) for pathological stage IA (pIA) primary non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), we compared VATS and conventional thoracotomy (CT). Patients and Methods: From January 1986 through December 2004, 338 patients with pIA primary NSCLC underwent lobectomy or segmentectomy. Of these, 123 patients underwent VATS lobectomy and 215 patients underwent conventional thoracotomy. We evaluated the invasiveness of surgery by operating time, intraoperative blood loss, length of postoperative hospital stay, WBC and CRP levels in serum measured on postoperative day 3 and 7, and loss of vital capacity, safety by postoperative complication, and curability by number of dissected lymph nodes, 5-year survival rate and site of recurrence. Results: Intraoperative blood loss, length of postoperative hospital stay, WBC and CRP levels and loss of vital capacity were significantly less in VATS than in CT. But there were no significant differences in the number of dissected lymph nodes, the 5-year survival rate and the local recurrence rate. Conclusion: VATS for pIA NSCLC is less invasive and more safe than CT, and has the same curability as CT. VATS is a feasible technique for patients with pIA NSCLC.
