Ten-year Experience with Minimally-invasive Thoracic Surgery at the Hospital Dr. Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia

Resumen

Objective: To analyze how useful has been the development of thoracoscopy at the Hospital Dr. Rafael A. Calderón Guardia Hospital.

Materials and methods: With the purpose of assessing the experience acquired with the practice of minimally-invasive thoracic surgery (VAT surgery) during the first 10 years; clinical data from March 1999 to March 2009 of 788 patients, taken from a database of the Thoracic Surgery Department, was reviewed. Results: During this 10-year period, 25% of the Department’s surgical procedures were performed through thoracoscopy. This percentage increased to 49% during the last 2 years of the reviewed period. The medical records of patients that underwent diagnostic procedures or tumor resections were analyzed. Diagnosis was obtained in 97.4% of patients that underwent surgery with the purpose of diagnosis; mediastinal tumors were the most difficult to diagnose, in two of these cases, the pathologist requested a larger sample. No major procedures were performed through this method. There were no mortality cases. The conversion rate was 2.6%, of which 20% was due to bleeding and 80% to perform a major procedure.

Conclusion: Thoracoscopy has revolutionized the field of medicine, superseding previous approaches, such as toracotomy, for minor surgeries; this has allowed the performance of complex surgeries and procedures. The results obtained show satisfactory results for patients and usefulness for the institution.