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Effect Analysis on Singledirection Lobectomy for Primary Nonsmall Cell Lung Cancer in the Early Stage by Videoassisted Thoracic Surgery

Abstract： Objective To investigate the effect of singledirection lobectomy plus systematic lymphnode dissection for primary nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the early stage by videoassisted thoracic surgery (VATS). Methods We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 89 patients who received VATS lobectomy plus systematic lymphnode dissection for earlystage primary NSCLC in the Second People’s Hospital of Chengdu between June 2006 and December 2009. Based on the operative approach, the patients were divided into two groups: VATSminithoracotomy group and singledirection lobectomy VATS group. In the former group, there were 46 patients, including 36 males and 10 females, with an age of 58.76±14.78 years. For patients in this group, minithoracotomy was carried out assisted by VATS. In the latter group, there were 43 patients, including 37 males and 6 females, with an age of 61.34±12.56 years, and singledirection lobectomy VATS was performed for patients in this group. Moreover, 42 patients undergoing routine posterior lateral open thoracotomy were chosen to form the control group (thoracotomy group, included 37 males and 5 females with an age of 56.30±15.59 years). The clinical features, such as operative time, operative blood loss, the number of systematic dissected lymph nodes, postoperative drainage quantity, postoperative complications and visual analogue scale (VAS) of chest pain were retrospectively analyzed to evaluate the early outcomes. Results No operative death occurred in all three groups. There were significant differences among the three groups in the postoperative drainage time (P=0.024), postoperative drainage quantity (P=0.019), operative blood loss (P=0.009), early outofbed activity time (P=0.031), and the incidence of cardiopulmonary complications (P=0.048). Compared with the VATSminithoracotomy group, the singledirection lobectomy VATS group was significantly lower or shorter (Plt;0.05) in postoperative drainage quantity (208.33±50.39 ml vs. 245.98±45.32 ml), operative blood loss (78.79±24.23 ml vs. 112.63±64.32 ml), and the early outofbed activity time (2.31±0.27 d vs. 3.56±0.31 d). The rate of using Dolantin in the control group was significantly higher than the other two groups (P=0.046, 0.007). The change of VAS score among the three groups after operation was also statistically significant (F=5.796, P=0.002). A total of 109 patients (37 in the VATSminithoracotomy group, 37 in the singledirection lobectomy VATS group, and 35 in the control group) were followed up after operation with a period of 2 to 48 months. Twentytwo patients were lost in the followup. There were 10, 9, and 8 deaths during the followup in the three groups respectively, and the median survival time was 40 months, 37 months, and 37 months respectively. There was no significant difference among the three groups in survival time (P=0.848). Conclusion VATS, especially VATS assisted single direction lobectomy and systematic lymphnode dissection for primary NSCLC in the early stage has the same surgical efficacy as the traditional open thoracotomy, and is minimally invasive, which contributes to a quick recovery. Consequently, it is a reliable approach for lung cancer in the early stage. 