Study of diagnostic and therapeutic utility of video assisted thoracoscopic surgery

Abstract

Background: Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) is rapidly becoming a popular method for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Many diseases of the chest can now be diagnosed by VATS due to ease of look and biopsy. Hence the present study was undertaken to determine diagnostic and therapeutic utility of VATS in different chest pathologies.Methods: In this prospective study, total 36 patients of different age group were subjected to VATS procedure, to measured operative time, intra and post- operative complications, post-operative pain and hospital stay. Then patient was followed up at 15 days, at 1 month, 3 month and at 6 months.Results: VATS was successfully carried out in 28 patients as the only procedure whereas 8 patients required conversion to thoracotomy. Average operative time for patients operated by VATS only was 94.9 minute and for patients operated by VATS converted to thoracotomy was 175.5 minute. Most common intraoperative complication was bleeding (16.66 %) followed by anaphylactic shock observed in only one patient. Most common postoperative complication was prolonged air leak (5.55%) followed by port site infection (2.77%) and postoperative bleeding (2.77%). At 24 hours postoperatively, average pain score observed in VATS group was 3.73 and in thoracotomy group was 6.28. The mean postoperative hospital stay for patients operated by VATS was 7.28 days and for patients operated by VATS converted to thoracotomy was 10.36 days. There was significant difference observed in diagnosis of various chest pathologies by radiological investigations and VATS.Conclusions: VATS should be offered as the first approach to various chest pathologies requiring surgical intervention and preferred over thoracotomy when feasible.