Abstract

FUENTES VALDES, Edelberto; DIAZ CALDERIN, José Ma  and  HUERTA GAMBOA, Juan Carlos. VideotoracoscopiaNuestra experiencia. Rev Cubana Cir [online]. 2001, vol.40, n.2, pp. 134-143. ISSN 1561-2945.

The development of endosopic equipments and the advances of the surgical techniques have expanded the videoassisted thoracic surgery from purely diagnostic procedures to therapeutic procedures. In a group of 175 patients who underwent this type of surgery, 104 (59.4 %) were men and 71 were women (40.6 %). In 53.7 % the surgical approaches were diagnostic. Pleural effusion, lung nodules and mediastinal tumor-like lesions are among the most common causes. The operations performed with diagnostic ends included pleura biopsy, biopsy of lung and mediastinal tumors and staging of bronchogenic carcinoma. In all patients but one, a sample for biopsy was taken. Pleural talc application, resection of emphysematous bullae, transthoracic vagotomy, partial parietal pleurectomy and resection of intervertebral discs for the anterior release of the vertebral column are some of the procedures with curative character. There were 21 conversions (10.6 %). The main causes were wide-base bullae, pleural block due to adhesions, the non-visualization of the lesion and non lung collapse. Of the 18 (10.3 %) complicated patients, 6 (3.4 %) had general complications. The most frequent were acute respiratory failure, pneumothorax, pleural effusion and transoperative bleeding. Mortality was 5.1 % with 9 deaths. Major causes were lung thromboembolism (LTE) and myocardial infarction (MI). It was obtained an average surgical time of 40.2 min (15-80) and 80.9 (25-180) for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, respectively. It is concluded that video-assisted thhoracoscopic surgery is a valuable tool in the diagnosis and treatment of different pulmonary, pleural and mediastinal lesions

Keywords : THORACIC SURGERY [methods]; THORACOSCOPY [methods]; SURGICAL PROCEDURES; ENDOSCOPIC; THORACIC SURGICAL PROCEDURES.

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