Pneumonectomy for lung cancer: a further step in minimally invasive surgery

Robotic lobectomies have been proven to be technically and oncologically feasible. To date, however, pneumonectomy is still considered as a too extensive resection to be performed by the da Vinci robotic system (Intuitive Surgical, Mountain View, CA). We describe 2 patients with centrally located non-small cell lung cancer requiring pneumonectomy and radical lymph node dissection. The operations, consisting of a left and a right pneumonectomy, were successfully performed by a totally video-assisted robotic approach. Tips and pitfalls in this latest innovation in the minimally invasive surgery for lung cancer are discussed.