Chest tube drainage placement may not be a necessity in paediatric thoracoscopic surgery: a retrospective study

Chest tube drainage placement, a standard procedure in video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery, was reported to cause perioperative complications like pain and increased risk of infection. The present study was designed to evaluate the necessity of chest tube drainage inpaediatric thoracoscopic surgery.

Thirty children admitted to our hospital from April 2018 to April 2020 were included in the current study and were grouped as the tube group (children receiving video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery with chest tube drainage) and the non-tube group (children receiving video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery without chest tube drainage). Laboratory hemogram index, length of hospitalisation, post-operative performance of involved children, and psychological acceptance of indicated therapy by guardians of the involved children were investigated.

Laboratory examination revealed that the mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration in the non-tube group was significantly higher than that in the tube group on post-operative day 1 (p < 0.05). Children in the non-tube group had a shorter length of hospitalisation (7-9 days) than that of patients from the tube group. Additionally, the frequency of crying of children was decreased and psychological acceptance by patients' guardians was improved in the non-tube group when compared with the tube group.

This study showed that chest tube drainage placement may not be necessary in several cases of paediatric video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery. Rapid recovery with decreased perioperative complications in children operated by video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery without tube placement could also reduce the burden of the family and society both economically and psychologically.