Recent developments in video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery for pulmonary nodule management

In the modern era when screening and early surveillance of pulmonary nodules is increasing in importance, the management of the pulmonary nodule represents a different challenge to thoracic surgeons. The difficulty lies in the merging of sound surgical and oncological principles with more minimally invasive and appropriate lung sparing surgery. Furthermore, the intra-operative identification and surgical management of small and sometimes multi-focal pulmonary lesions remain challenging. There have been many developments and innovations in the field of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) to cater for the demands from increasing incidence of pulmonary nodules with associated paradigm shift in their surgical management. Recently, uniportal VATS and non-intubated VATS represent an even less invasive alternative to the conventional multiport VATS. The emergence of image guided VATS, hybrid operating theatre and fluorescence thoracoscopy have all contributed to improved precision of VATS lung resection, and are becoming important adjuncts to lung sparing surgery. In this chapter, some of these recent developments in VATS with emphasize on their importance in surgical management of the pulmonary nodule will be discussed.