Video-assisted thoracic surgery lobectomy for lung cancer in a patient with complete situs inversus

Abstract

We present a surgical case of lung cancer in a patient with complete situs inversus. A medical check-up showed a solitary focus in the left upper lung field in a 58-year-old man. A CT scan revealed a nodule, 2 cm in diameter, in the left upper lobe and complete situs inversus. Under a preoperative diagnosis of stage I A (cT1N0M0) cancer of the left lung, VATS partial resection was performed. The intraoperative rapid pathological diagnosis was adenocarcinoma, so we carried out a VATS left upper lobectomy. Regarding intraoperative findings, the left lung had three lobes and pulmonary vascular situs inversus. So, we performed surgery with a mirror image of the right upper lobectomy.