Length of Operation with Video-assisted Thoracoscopic Lobectomy

Objective To determine the duration of the resection of pulmonary lobe (RPL) and the effect of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) procedure on the duration of RPL. Methods The records of 126 patients who had VATS lobectomy from October 2009 to October 2010 with a single-direction thoracoscopic procedure in one hospital were reviewed. Results The patients included 65 (52%) men and 61 (48%) women with a mean age of 56 years (range, 15 years to 82 years). Four cases were excluded because of intraoperative complication. The average length of operation of RPL in the 122 patients without intraoperative complications was 38.98 min ±13.243 min (range, 17 min to 100 min), and the average length of the entire operation was 153.36 min ±39.64 min (range, 70 min to 245 min). Regardless which lobes, the average length of a single RPL remained the same (P>0.05). The RPL of bilobectomies took longer than a single lobectomy (P<0.05). However, no significant differences in the length of the entire operations were found between bilobectomy and single lobectomy (P>0.05). Conclusion The length of RPL reflects the difficulties of the core step of thoracoscopic lobectomy. Single-direction thoracoscopic lobectomy is an easy procedure to manipulate.