Uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopy in pediatrics-initial experience.

Background: It has become apparent that the endoscopic surgeries are rapidly developing, and they have become an essential part of every specialty of surgery. Single port thoracoscopic surgery is developing, enhancing the advantages of muti-portal video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). Although becoming a well-recognised approach for adult patients, extremely limited literature exists concerning uniportal VATS among pediatric cases. This study aims to present our initial experience with this approach in a single tertiary hospital and extrapolate its feasibility and safety in this specific context. Methods: Perioperative parameters and surgical outcomes for all pediatric patients who underwent an intercostal or subxiphoid uniportal VATS surgery in our department in 2 years retrospectively reviewed. The median length of follow-up was 8 months. Results: Sixty-eight pediatric patients underwent different uniportal VATS operation for different types of pathology. The median age was (3.5 years). Median operating time was 116 minutes. Three cases converted to open. The mortality rate was zero. The median length of stay was 5 days. Three patients presented complications. Three patients lost from follow-up. Conclusions: Despite literature data heterogeneity, these results provide support to the feasibility and applicability of uniportal VATS in the pediatric population. Further studies are required to explore the benefit of uniportal over multi-portal VATS (including chest wall deformities, cosmesis and quality of life).

Combined surgical correction of pectus carinatum and juvenile kyphosis.

Pectus carinatum may rarely be associated with kyphosis. However, the correlation between both conditions is not well reported. Therefore, there are no reports for combined correction of both deformities in the same patient. Moreover, studies estimating the kyphosis prevalence in patients with pectus carinatum are lacking. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to present such a case. We report an 18-year-old boy with both pectus carinatum and kyphosis that were surgically corrected in a combined procedure. The indication of surgery is cosmetic, and the postoperative recovery included pneumothorax but was otherwise uneventful and satisfactory.

Unusual case of subxiphoid uniportal VATS right upper lobectomy in a patient with interrupted inferior vena cava with azygous continuation.

Interrupted IVC (also known as Azygos continuation of the inferior vena cava) is a relatively uncommon congenital condition with prevalence 1.5% (0.2-3%) of the general population (Bass et al.). Although it's usually asymptomatic condition, splenic or cardiac abnormalities could be associated (Hardwick et al.). Incidental diagnosis during prenatal ultrasound screening or by routine imaging is the most common scenario. Special attention is required during right side thoracic procedures surgical resections in order to avoid scarifying the azygos vein that could lead to fatal results (Effler et al.). We herein report a video documented case of right upper lobectomy and mediastinal lymph node dissection for non-small cell carcinoma of lung in a patient who had interrupted hepatic segmental branch of the IVC. The procedure was performed via the subxiphoid uniportal VATS approach.

Bilateral uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic lung resections.

The introduction of uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery into the field of minimally invasive thoracic surgery has its revolutionary effect by bringing the surgical trauma to the minimum. As a result, less postoperative pain and complications may be achieved through this technology. This may convince us as thoracic surgeons to become more liberal and to extend the indications of performing 'single-staged' bilateral video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery. Herein, we described our technique in bilateral pulmonary resections. A 32-year-old woman was admitted to our department with 3 small bilateral lesions. Two wedge resections were performed on the left side, followed by S6 segmentectomy on the right side.