Abstract

Objectives: Although feasibility and safety of VATS becoming a well-established, many surgeons still consider benign lesions should preferably be approached through an open approach. literature review shows that thoracoscopy have been used since early 40’s for benign pathologies so far we still find some centers using the open approach.
We aim at evaluation of VATS practice for benign thoracic pathologies with the experience we got through years of knowledge and practice since the first report of VATS uses in benign pathologies
Methods: A retrospective study of patients admitted with a clinical diagnosis of benign disease in which VATS therapeutic procedures were done.
Results: Two hundred and twenty three patients admitted to the service between March 2009-May 2013. 62.8% (140) were males and 37.2% (83) were females. Ten different categories of benign intrathoracic diseases. The most commonly operated was hyperhydrosis (35.9%) followed by pnemothorax (20.6%). Number of port used were 2 ports in most of the cases (49.8%), 31.8% done using 3 ports and 17.9% used only one port. Mean drainage days were 2.9 days. No chest tube drainage applied in 17% of cases. Complication occurs in 3 cases with no intraoperative mortality. Mean duration of operation were 120.76 minutes.
Conclusion: VATS procedures still offer safe and feasible option for treating benign disease with even less duration, hospital stay and ports used compared with historical publications. Effort should be made to encourage more thoracic surgery service to adopt VATS techniques for all benign pathologies.

Keywords: Thoracoscopy/VATS; Trauma; Lung; Benign or congenital lesions; Pleura; Hyperhidrosis