First non-intubated uniportal video-assisted pulmonary lobectomy in America

The first video-assisted thoracic lobectomy in non-intubated patient in America was performed on 27^th of September 2014 in Bogotá Colombia, The National Cancer Institute in Bogotá received Dr. Diego González-Rivas to make possible this kind of procedure in a 53-year-old man, with a history of papillary thyroid cancer treated with surgery and Iodine therapy, in whom two pulmonary nodules were found in the monitoring tomography. We resected the nodule located at the right upper lobe previously marked by scintigraphy, the other one required a lobectomy because it was a deep nodule with malignant radiologic appearance inside of the middle lobe. The procedure discoursed in a non-intubated patient without technical difficulties or complications, very short recovery time, minimum pain and a quiet and usual postoperative evolution. This procedure, the first reported in America was replicated after others with similar results in several countries thanks to the collaboration between surgeons, anesthesiologists, radiologists, nurses and therapists, because especially in such interventions teamwork is essential. We believe that given the benefits in terms of recovery for the patient and anesthetic time, we could go on replicating the experience in selected patients.