Introduction: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of thoracoscopy on staging and therapy of peripheral pulmonary nodules in patients with a cancer history.
Patients and methods: Videothoracoscopy (VATS) was performed in patients presenting peripheral pulmonary nodules (< 3cm) in CT-scan. 65 patients (63%) presented less than 3 nodules and 39 patients (37%) had multiple lesions in the lungs. History revealed a primary gastro-intestinal cancer in 35 patients (34%), a sarcoma in 26 patients (25%), breast cancer in 13 patients (13%) and miscellaneous primary cancer in 22 patients (21%). VATS was performed under general anesthesia using a standard equipment (Olympus). Double lumen endotracheal intubation was carried out. Thoracoscopic pulmonary resection was accomplished with endoscopic stapler (Autosuture Multi-Fire Endo GIA 30). The specimens were removed in a retrieval bag and a tube was inserted into the thoracic cavity.
Results: In 24 patients (23%) conversion to thoracotomy was performed, because of adhesions (n = 12), technical reasons (n = 8), no tumor detectable (n = 4). Thoracoscopic wedge resection for coin lesions was performed in 61 of the 80 patients (76%). Three patients underwent decortication and in 16 patients biopsy was sufficient for therapeutical considerations. Additional informations in comparison to conventional diagnostic were found in 39 patients (49%). The treatment regimen altered in 32 patients (40%).
Conclusions: In this study VATS proved to be a sensitive technique for staging of pulmonary coin lesions. Additional informations were achieved in 49% and therapeutic strategy was changed in 40% of the patients due to the distant spread of malignancy or detection of benign lesions obtained by thoracoscopic staging.