BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the application of video-assisted thoracoscopy in the management of recurrent spontaneous pneumothorax in the pediatric population. PATIENTS AND METHODS Between 1995 and 1997, four patients with recurrent spontaneous pneumothorax were treated. Ages varied from 14 to 17 years. There were three males and one female. Two ...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the role of video-assisted thoracoscopy in the diagnosis of diffuse parenchymal lung diseases. METHODS The medical charts of patients suspected of having diffuse parenchymal lung disease were retrospectively reviewed, as were the results of the anatomopathological examination of lung biopsy specimens collected through video-assisted thoracoscopy. RESULTS Of the 48 pati...

BACKGROUND Several approaches have been proposed for the treatment of thoracic disc herniations. Posterior approaches include transpedicular, costotransversectomy, and lateral extracavitary; anterior approaches include retropleural and transpleural thoracotomy and thoracoscopy. OBJECTIVE We present a novel minimally invasive approach to thoracic discectomies, combining thoracoscopy and a tubu...

BACKGROUND Medical thoracoscopy (MT) is a procedure considered as minimally invasive. The safety of the procedure has been questioned recently in fragile patients, but no explanation of the pathophysiologic mechanism has been given. Although MT is applied by respiratory physicians who are also dealing with patients with impairment of lung function, it is surprising that there are no data concer...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to investigate the safety, feasibility, and clinical effectiveness of thoracoscopy-assisted mitral valve replacement via thoracic right-anterior minimal incision. MATERIAL AND METHODS A retrospective analysis was conducted of 225 patients with mitral valve lesions who were treated in our hospital from August 2012 to August 2015. Group A included 105 patients...

BACKGROUND Hypoxemia is a surrogate marker for periprocedural endoscopic complications. There are no data comparing the safety of propofol sedation with another sedative regimen in medical thoracoscopy. OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether sedation with propofol is as safe and effective as sedation with midazolam. METHODS Ninety consecutive patients undergoing medical thoracoscopy were randomly al...

BackgroundIn osteosarcoma patients, resection of pulmonary metastases is considered necessary for long term survival. Radiologically detected lesions are sometimes difficult to identify intraoperatively, especially when no palpation possible during thoracoscopy. In adults, fluorescence guided surgery (FGS) using indocyanine green (ICG) has been shown be a safe method intra-operative identificat...