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Y. Li



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    MINI 20 - Surgery (ID 137)

    • Event: WCLC 2015
    • Type: Mini Oral
    • Track: Treatment of Locoregional Disease – NSCLC
    • Presentations: 1
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      MINI20.11 - Lymph Node Impact on Conversion of VATs Lobectomy to Open Thoractomy (ID 75)

      16:45 - 18:15  |  Author(s): Y. Li

      • Abstract

      Background:
      Conversion to open thoracotomy occurs when thoracoscopic manipulation becomes difficult as a result of particular situations during complete thoracoscopic lobectomy after the surgeon starts to dissect blood vessels Based on special intra-operative situations, conversion to open thoracotomy can be divided into active and passive conversion. Active conversion to open thoracotomy implies that the surgeon gives up the thoracoscopic manipulation voluntarily and performs open surgery under direct vision as a result of the difficulty of thoracoscopic manipulation when encountering problems, such as adhesions of lymph nodes and difficulty of exposing huge tumors, which may result in massive bleeding, tumor rupture, and undue extension of the operative time. Passive conversion to open thoracotomy implies that the surgeon has to discontinue thoracoscopic manipulation and perform open surgery under direct vision because of urgent or serious intra-operative complications, including blood vessel breakage and bronchial membrane rupture, which are difficult to treat thoracoscopically. Lymph nodes are an important etiology affecting the conversion of complete thoracoscopic lobectomy to open thoracotomy.Five hundred consecutive patients with non-small cell lung cancer underwent complete thoracoscopic lobectomy at the Department of Thoracic Surgery of Peking University People’s Hospital, and the conversion to open thoracotomy was performed in 47 cases (9.4%). Lymph node interference means that a lymph node cannot be separated easily, and was the reason for conversion to open surgery in 31 cases (65.9% of 47 cases).The effect of lymph node interference on surgery has not been thoroughly addressed to date. We studied the data of patients who underwent complete thoracoscopic lobectomy in our hospital, and analyzed the effect of lymph nodes on the conversion to open thoracotomy and corresponding factors.

      Methods:
      Between September 2006 to April 2013, 1006 patients (545 men, 461women, median age 60 years, range from 13 to 86 years)received completly thoracoscopic lobectomy, including segmectomy(n=13), simple lobectomy(n=846), compound lobectomy(n=131), pneumonectomy (n=8), sleeve lobectomy(n=8). The main procedure was completely video-assisted anatomical lobectomy with mediastinal lymphadenectomy as we have reported.

      Results:
      All procedures were carried out smoothly without serious complication. 83 cases converted to thoracotomy(8.2%), including 70 cases of initiative conversion and 13 cases of passive conversion in which 59 cases was interference by doornail lymph nodes. Pathological result show 821 cases of malignant disease and 185 cases of benign disease. All patients recovered well.the average operative time in the conversion thoracotomy group was significantly longer (272.7 ± 67.2min versus186.9 ± 58.1min, P = 0.001)compared with completely endoscopic surgery group, the average blood loss was significantly increased(564.2 ± 507.7ml versus 158.0 ± 121.0ml, P = 0.001), the drainage time was significantly longer(8.9 ± 5.0d versus 6.6 ± 3.5d, P = 0.001) and the postoperative hospital stay was significantly longer(12.5 ± 7.7d versus 9.2 ± 5.8d, P = 0.001).

      Conclusion:
      Interference of lymph doeds was the main reason for conversion to thoracotomy on VATs lobectomy. It may prolonged the operative time, increase the blood loss in operation and delay the postoperative recovery of the patients. Select the proper indication of conversion thoracotomy may reduce the negative effects of conversion thoracotomy.