This study confirms that radio-guided localization of small pulmonary nodules is a feasible, safe, and quick procedure, with a high rate of success. The spread of the sentinel lymph node technique has increased the availability of technology required for RGTS.

In our previous study, we observed that the presence of autoimmune thyroid disease worsens fibromyalgia (FM) symptoms. The aims of this study are to evaluate whether there is a predisposition for the development of FM in patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) with or without subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) and in patients with SCH alone and what is the weight of antithyroid antibody positivity and SCH on FM comorbidity. Fifty-two patients, 39 affected by HT with or without SCH and 13 by SCH, were matched with 37 patients affected by FM and 25 healthy subjects. Blood samples were collected from all study subjects for the determination of serum TSH, free triiodothyronine, free thyroxine, antithyroperoxidase antibody (TPOAb), antithyroglobulin antibody (TgAb) and non-organ-specific autoantibodies. Clinical assessment of patients and controls included the "Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire" (FIQ), while pain severity was evaluated using a visual analogue scale (VAS). Patients and controls were also characterized by the presence of diffuse pain, fatigue, paresthesiae, muscle spasms, non-restful sleep, tension headache and presence of mood disorders. FM comorbidity resulted in twelve HT subjects (31%) and none in SCH patient. In particular, FM comorbidity in HT patients without SCH was 33.3% and in HT patients with SCH was 28.5%. Based on our data, we speculate that maybe there is more than a hypothesis regarding the cause-effect relation between thyroid autoimmunity and the presence of FM, thus suggesting a hypothetical role of thyroid autoimmunity in FM pathogenesis.

Currently there is no universally accepted surgical therapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). The goal of surgery in this dismal disease is a macroscopic complete resection (MCR) and there are two types of intervention with a curative intent. At one side, there is the extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) which consists in an en-bloc resection of the lung, pleura, pericardium and diaphragm and at the other side, there is pleurectomy/decortication (P/D) a lung-sparing surgery. Initially, EPP was considered the only surgical option with a curative aim, but during the decades P/D have acquired a role of increasing importance in MPM therapy. Several randomized prospective trials are required to establish the best strategy in the treatment of pleural mesothelioma. Although which is the best surgical option remains unclear, the International Mesothelioma Interest Group (IMIG), recently have stated that the type of surgery depends on clinical factors and on individual surgical judgment and expertise. Moreover, according to the current evidence, the surgery should be performed in high-volume centres within multimodality protocols. The aim of this study is to examine the currently available international guidelines in the surgical diagnosis and treatment of MPM.

Robotic lobectomy for clinical N0-N1 NSCLC appears to be equivalent to thoracotomy in terms of efficacy of lymph node dissection and nodal upstaging. Given that the nodal upstaging is a surrogate of quality of surgery, we can consider robotic lobectomy an appropriate procedure which ensures similar result to the open approach.

Robotic surgery has the features to represent the future of surgery, considering the rapid evolution of its technology and the resulting in the surgical field. In the last years, the robotic technique in thoracic surgery has progressively become widespread in the word, particularly for the treatment of the mediastinal and pulmonary lesions. The development of technology in the robotic system has been associated with the improvement of intraoperative and postoperative results. Due to the satisfying results and increasing experience and confidence with the robotic technique, surgeons are consequently enlarging the surgical indication, moving to increasingly challenging cases. Thoracic robotic surgery is being affirmed as a safe technique also for those complex cases, which in the past were considered a matter solely for open surgery. In fact, robotic surgery is increasingly associated with positive surgical results and guarantees less traumatism and a fast recovery to the patients. These positive results have resulted from the evolution of the technique, which has developed in parallel with the evolution of the technology, exploiting to its best the latest features of the robotic system. These features, such as the fluorescence-detection tool or the robotic stapler, have been aiding the surgeon to maximise the safety and feasibility of the application of the robotic technique to thoracic surgery.