A novel suction-based lung-stabilizing device in single-port video-assisted thoracoscopic surgical procedures

Single-port video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (SPVATS) has become a subject of interest for thoracic surgeons in recent years; however, it has not been fully accepted partly because the procedure is technically demanding. We speculate that the most critical problem of SPVATS is that significant interferences of the instruments may occur during the procedure because all the instruments share only a single incisional port. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usability of a new suction-based lung-stabilizing device during SPVATS procedure.

We developed a novel suction-based lung-stabilizing device equipped with three hemispheric silicon suction cups. Ten cases of canine's lower lobectomies were performed. Five cases were performed without this device and designated as the control cases. The remaining cases were performed using this device and were designated as the experimental cases.

A significantly fewer number of interruption times were noted in the novel lung-stabilizing device group than in the control group (average, 0.4 vs. 4.4; P = 0.0031). Although the differences did not reach statistical significance, the device tended to demonstrate better performance compared with the control group regarding the operation time, organ damage, and accomplishment of SPVATS.

Our study indicates that the novel lung-stabilizing device has potentially useful applications in SPVATS procedures.