Case of thoracoscopic right upper lobectomy for lung cancer with tracheal bronchus and a pulmonary vein variation.

A 58-year-old woman visited our hospital with the chief complaint of an abnormal chest shadow. Chest CT showed an 18-mm ground-glass opacity in the right upper lobe, which became enlarged over time, and lung cancer was suspected. At the same time, a tracheal bronchus originating directly from the trachea was observed. She underwent thoracoscopic right upper lobectomy and mediastinal lymph node dissection. During surgery, in addition to the tracheal bronchus, a pulmonary vein variation was seen running dorsal to the pulmonary artery. Her postoperative course was uneventful. Tracheal bronchus is a rare anomaly, with an incidence of 0.1%-5%. Since tracheal bronchus is often accompanied by pulmonary vessel variations and may be associated with repeated previous infections, care should be taken when performing thoracoscopic lung resection.

Syndrome of inappropriate secretion of antidiuretic hormone (SIADH) following carboplatin-paclitaxel administration in a patient with lung cancer.

A 60-year-old female underwent right upper lobectomy of the lung and lymph node dissection under a diagnosis of cancer in the upper lobe of the right lung. Pathological examination showed stage IIIA adenocarcinoma with mediastinal lymph node metastasis. One month after the operation, adjuvant chemotherapy with carboplatin (CBDCA) and paclitaxel (PTX) was initiated. Four days after the chemotherapy, hyponatremia progressed, and central nervous system disorder developed. A diagnosis of syndrome of inappropriate secretion of antidiuretic hormone (SIADH) was made. She recovered after fluid intake restriction and electrolyte correction. SIADH was considered to be due to the adverse effects of anticancer drugs. In postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy, attention should be paid to the serum Na level.

Comparison of the surgical outcomes of thoracoscopic lobectomy, segmentectomy, and wedge resection for clinical stage I non-small cell lung cancer.

BACKGROUND: Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) for clinical stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has been widely used as a less invasive surgical procedure, but the resection method is still controversial. We retrospectively compared the surgical outcomes of lobectomy, segmentectomy and wedge resection. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 411 patients with clinical stage I NSCLC who underwent VATS (218 males and 193 females, aged 69.3 years; 345 adenocarcinomas, 57 squamous cell carcinomas, and 9 others) were investigated. The surgical procedure was lobectomy in 289, segmentectomy in 38, and wedge resection in 84. Surgical outcomes were compared among these 3 groups. RESULTS: Demographic characteristics showed that the rate of elderly and male patients was higher in the wedge resection group. The 5-year survival rates for the lobectomy, segmentectomy, and wedge resection groups were 82.1, 87.2, and 55.4%, respectively. In the wedge resection group, the 5-year survival rate was 83.3% in patients undergoing intentional low-risk operations for small tumors with ground glass opacity, and 41.1% in those undergoing conservative high-risk operations because of comorbidities. Using Cox's proportional multivariate analysis and sex differences, histology, and tumor size as co-influential factors, the surgical procedure was found to be a significantly poor prognostic factor, and the hazard ratio of wedge resection relative to lobectomy was 4.30. CONCLUSION: The outcomes of VATS lobectomy and segmentectomy procedures for clinical stage I NSCLC were equivalent, while the outcome for VATS wedge resection was inferior. VATS wedge resection for clinical stage I NSCLC should be carefully indicated and requires adequate patient selection.

Intrapulmonary schwannoma in the right middle lobe: a case report.

Herein, we report a patient with a rare disease, intrapulmonary schwannoma. The patient was a 61-year-old woman who had a 20 mm × 18 mm nodule, with a clear boundary and homogeneous content, on the central side of S4 in the right lung on chest CT. On PET with 18- fluorodeoxyglucose scanning, 18-fluorodeoxyglucose accumulations with a maximal standardized uptake value of 2.5 and 3.3 were observed in the early and late phases, respectively, suggesting a malignant tumor. A thoracoscopic right middle lobectomy was performed because the tumor was present in the segmental bronchial region of the middle lobe. Intrapulmonary schwannoma accounts for 0.2% of lung tumor cases, and cases involving patients who have undergone preoperative PET with 18- fluorodeoxyglucose scanning have rarely been reported.