[Video-assisted thoracoscopy and thoracic surgery: the first 50 patients]

We report our first full year of clinical experience with video assisted thoracic surgery. From September 1991 to October 1992, 50 patients were treated using endoscopic surgical techniques. There were 29 men and 21 women with a mean age of 48 years, ranging from 17 to 76 years. Drainage and talc poudrage of pleural effusions, with or without pleurodesis, was done in 18 patients (36%), blebectomies with pleurectomy or pleural abrasion was done in 11 patients (22%), and 7 patients (14%) underwent wedge resections of pulmonary lesions. Four other patients (8%) underwent resections or biopsies of mediastinal tumors, and 3 (6%) pericardial windows were done for cardiac tamponade. Finally, one chest wall biopsy and one empyema drainage were carried out, and 5 thoracoscopies were limited to the exploration of the chest. Complications occurred in 5 patients (10%). There was one mortality. Video-assisted thoracic surgery is efficacious in the treatment of various thoracic diseases and associated with satisfactory results in selected patients.