The Increasing Adoption of Minimally Invasive Lobectomy in the United States

National trends, safety, and effectiveness of minimally invasive concomitant chest wall resection for locally advanced lung cancer

“…Minimally invasive approaches, such as robotic or video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS), have been increasingly used as the preferred approach in the surgical therapy of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). 1 , 2 Multiple studies have shown that these minimally invasive approaches to lung cancer are a safe and oncologically effective alternative to open thoracotomy 3 , 4 and may offer many perioperative advantages in terms of shorter hospital stay, postoperative pain, and perioperative morbidity. Most of these studies pertain to common extents of resection.…”

As minimal as possible

“…While certainly, there are minimally-invasive surgeons who perform sleeve lobectomy, there are equally a significant number of surgeons that do not have the resources, staff, or training to perform complex minimally-invasive thoracic surgery. Notably, a substantial number of patients in the United States undergo lobectomy via thoracotomy, and the conversion rate, although declining, remains relatively high ( 4 ). The value of the hybrid VATS approach, therefore, is the potential for adoption of this technique among surgeons who would otherwise perform an open thoractomy.…”