Comparison Of Video-assisted Thoracoscopic Systematic Mediastinal Lymph Node Dissection And Conventional Thoracotomy For Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Objective To investigate the security and clinical effect ofvideo-assisted thoracoscopic systematic lymphadenectomy for non-smallcell lung cancer.Methods188patients with non-small cell lung cancer were treatedconsecutively from December2008to December2012in our medicalworkgroup.Ninety-eight underwent video-assited thoracoscopic lobectomycombined with systematic lymphadenectomy(VATS group) while ninetypatients underwent conventional thoracotomy or video-assistedminithracotomy(OPEN group).The total numbers of dissected andmetastatic lymph nodes,perioperative indicators were compared betweenthe two groups.Results There is no perioperative mortality for both groups．Nosignificant difference was found in operative time（215.0±32.5min vs215.5±57.0min，p＞0.05）,intraoperative bleeding（217.1±104.1ml vs279.8±290.4ml，p＞0.05）,and especially the stations and numbers ofdissected lymph nodes(24.23±8.06vs26.50±10.88，p＜0.05）.Whereaswe found the patients of VATS group had shorter intensive care time（2.55±0.86d vs3.09±0.98d，p＜0.05）,less hospitalization after surgery（7.8 ±2.5d vs9.3±3.5d，p＜0.05）,shorter chest tube tim（e4.84±1.89d vs6.29±2.08d，p＜0.05）、less drainage volume（7828.3±442.8ml vs1009.2±557.1ml，p＜0.05）and less dosage of dolantin（68.6±93.7mg vs106.4±102.9mg，p＜0.05）than the OPEN group.Conclusions Video-assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy complicatedwith systematic mediastinal lymph node dissection for non-small cell lungcancer is a safe and practicable procedure,which also can complete radicallymphadenectomy.