The aim of this study was to compare thoracoscopic surgery for spontaneous pneumothorax under epidural and/or local anesthesia (ELA) with that under general anesthesia and prove the feasibility and safety of thoracoscopic surgery under ELA for spontaneous pneumothorax. Relevant studies were searched in five databases from their date of publication to June 2016. We collected and analyzed the dat...

Thoracoscopic plication of the diaphragm has been recently described as an alternative treatment for eventration. It is considered to be much less traumatic than the conventional method. We attempted thoracoscopic diaphragm plication on three patients. Two patients were treated successfully by the minimally invasive technique and were discharged from hospital on the second postoperative day. In...

PURPOSE We sought to characterize our recent experience with thoracoscopic congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) repair and identify patient selection factors. METHODS We reviewed the medical records of full-term neonatal (<1 month of age) patients who underwent thoracoscopic CDH repair between 2004 and 2008 (n = 15). We obtained data on prenatal diagnosis, characteristics of the CDH and repa...

DESIGN Evaluation of thoracoscopic splanchnicectomy and laparoscopic gastrojejunostomy as endoscopic palliative treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS Between November 1993 and September 1998 we performed 16 thoracoscopic splanchnicectomies and 6 laparoscopic gastrojejunostomies in patients with an advanced pancreatic cancer admitted to the Department of Surgery of Univ...

Background Benign esophageal tumors are rare; complete surgical resection is essential for the management of the submucosal tumors. Larger, symptomatic, or non-diagnostic lesions should be resected for both diagnostic and therapeutic indications. VATS has become a popular treatment in the thoracic surgery, however thoracoscopic esophageal surgery may lead to increased operative complications. W...

Bronchogenic mediastinal cysts (BMC) represent 18% of primitive mediastinal tumors and the most frequent cystic lesions in this area. Nowadays, BMC are usually treated by VATS. However, the presence of major adhesions to vital structures is often considered as an unfavourable condition for thoracoscopic treatment. The authors report the thoracoscopic treatment of a BMC having dense adhesions to...

Bronchogenic cysts in the mediastinum are a rare condition. Progressive enlargement of the cyst may cause compression of adjacent organs. Dysphagia caused by bronchogenic cyst compression is quite rare. When a submucosal lesion is seen in panendoscopy, it should be included in one of the differential diagnoses. A complete resection, either by an open thoracotomy or thoracoscopic method, is usua...

OBJECTIVES Thoracoscopic surgery using internal intercostal nerve block, vagal block and targeted sedation without endotracheal intubation is a promising technique for selected patients, but little is known about its feasibility and safety. METHODS We evaluated 109 patients with lung (105), mediastinal (3) or pleural (1) tumours treated using non-intubated thoracoscopic surgery. Internal, int...

We present a case of primary lung cancer with a rare distribution pattern of left inferior pulmonary vein (PV), encountered in the thoracoscopic left lower lobectomy. Thoracoscopic observation revealed 2 trunks of inferior PV (ventral and dorsal branch) at the stem level. The ventral trunk consisted of a branch of vein (V(5)) from the lingular segment and venous ramifications (V(8)a, V(9) and V...

Recent advances in surgical techniques and understanding of the pathophysiology of atrial fibrillation has led to the development of a less invasive thoracoscopic surgical treatment including video-assisted bilateral pulmonary vein isolation using bipolar radiofrequency ablation clamps. More recently, the same operation became possible via a totally thoracoscopic approach. In this paper we desc...