[Video-assisted thoracic surgery in the management of chest diseases]

To summarize short-term results of video-assisted thoracic surgery for 322 patients with chest diseases in Beijing from October 1992 to October 1998 and discuss the role of thoracoscopy in the diagnosis and therapy of thoracic diseases in China.

Three hundred and twenty-two patients (273 men and 85 women) underwent video-assisted thoracic surgery for spontaneous pneumothorax (113), lung cancer (83), solitary pulmonary nodules (52), pleural diseases (19), mediastinal tumors (11), myasthenia gravis (5), thoracic trauma (10), esophageal cancer (7), benign esophageal diseases (11), and other indications (11). Data on thoracoscopic procedures, morbidity and mortality, conversion to open procedures were collected for all patients.

Three hundred and thirty-nine thoracoscopic procedures were performed in 322 patients. These procedures included blebectomy and pleurodesis (121), wedge resections of pulmonary nodules (57), lobectomy and pneumonectomy (48), pleural biopsies and pleurodesis (52), excision of mediastinal mass (11), thymectomy (5), esophagectomy (6), and other procedures (39). Conversion to thoracotomy was required in 9 patients (0.28%). The overall incidence of postoperative complications was 7.5% (24/322). Two patients died postoperatively.

Video-assisted thoracic surgery is a safe and effective technique in selected patients with chest diseases. The results in this group were similar to those reported previously in North American.