Trans-sternotomy versus video-assisted thoracic surgery for early-stage thymoma patients: a meta-analysis

Over the years, video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) thymectomy has progressively replaced trans-sternotomy (TS) in early-stage thymoma (Masaoka stage I and stage II). This meta-analysis aimed to confirm the differences in the efficacies of VATS and TS approaches in early-stage thymoma patients.

A thorough literature search of the following online databases was performed: PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and EMBASE. Appropriate search terms, such as "thymoma or thymus neoplasms or Thymic Carcinoma" and "Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgeries or Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic", were used with MeSH search methods. Heterogeneity was assessed first with the Q-test and inconsistency index and sensitivity analysis and subgroup analysis were then used to find the source of heterogeneity.

We retrieved 1,228 articles, 11 articles were selected as the subjects of our research, and 1,222 patients were included in the research (666 VATS cases versus 556 TS cases). VATS caused less blood loss (P=0.02), and required shorter hospital stay (P<0.001), shorter duration of chest tube drainage (P=0.03) than TS. No obvious difference was found in operative time (P=0.14), postoperative recurrence (OR =0.81, 95% CI: 0.35-1.85, P=0.613), postoperative complications (OR =0.60, 95% CI: 0.31-1.16, P=0.129) and R0 resection (OR =0.35, 95% CI: 0.12-1.04, P=0.06), but the trend showed that more patients in the TS group achieved R0 resection.

For early-stage thymoma patients, VATS thymectomy seems to provide many advantages to be considered as a legitimate alternative to TS; however, when performing VATS, surgeons should pay special attention to ensure that R0 resection is achieved.