Comparison of short-term effect of thoracoscopic segmentectomy and thoracoscopic lobectomy for the solitary pulmonary nodule and early-stage lung cancer

Purpose: To compare the short-term effect of anatomic video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) segmentectomy and VATS lobectomy.

Patients and methods: From January 2011 to December 2012, 21 patients underwent VATS segmentectomy and 61 underwent VATS lobectomy. Intraoperative blood loss, operating time, postoperative drainage time, length of hospital stay, postoperative complications, local recurrence, and survival were compared between the two groups.

Results: The intraoperative blood loss and average hospital stay were less in the segmentectomy group than in the lobectomy group (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the operating time, number of lymph nodes dissected, postoperative drainage time, or 1-year survival between the two groups (P>0.05). Only one patient died because of heart disease. The two groups had a similar incidence of postoperative complications (P>0.05). There was one (4.8%) local recurrence after segmentectomy and two (3.3%) after lobectomy (P>0.05).

Conclusion: VATS segmentectomy could be performed safely and is a method with favorable 1-year survival. It may be the ideal surgical procedure for patients with solitary pulmonary nodules in early stage lung cancer, especially for those with limited cardiopulmonary reserve or significant comorbidities.