What is closed lung surgery?
Closed lung surgery is the process of treating diseases in the field of thoracic surgery by closed (endoscopic) method.
It has many advantages in comparison to the open lung surgery. In thoracic surgery, closed lung surgery, VATS, is used in the diagnosis and surgical treatment of many diseases today.
How is a closed lung surgery performed?
In closed lung surgery, 1 to 4 incisions of about 1-2 cm are made in the patient’s armpit near the sternum. Special VATS instruments are inserted through this incision. While one of the instruments provides video imaging, the other instrument is used to access the operation area and the intervention is performed. Even major operations such as lung cancer surgery can be performed with this method. In developed countries, most of the lung and other operations in the chest are and should be performed with the closed method. In our country, the use of this method, which we pioneered, has become increasingly widespread.
In which diseases is closed lung surgery method is applied?
• lung nodules,
• lung deflation – pneumothorax,
• empyema (inflammation of the pleura),
• bronchiectasis (lung infections),
• lung cysts (hydatid cyst),
• surgery for lung metastases,
• lung injuries,
• tumors of the mediastinum,
• thymus gland enlargement, thymoma,
• diaphragm diseases,
• congenital diseases of the lung,
• emphysema surgery,
• excessive sweating
What are closed lung surgery methods?
Closed lung surgery methods are divided into 3;
Standart VATS Thoracoscopy:
This method involves more than one incision. Two or 3 small incisions can be used. It is used with the support of video imaging.
Single-Port VATS Thoracoscopy:
It is a minimally invasive surgical method that requires high experience in the field of thoracic surgery. Through a single incision, both video imaging and surgical instruments were inserted and the surgery can be performed. It is the least invasive intervention method amongst closed lung surgeries. Therefore, the duration of the patients’ return to their daily life after the surgery is relatively shorter.
The Robotic Method:
In this method, the surgeon performs the surgery by guiding the arms of a robot. Four small incisions are made around the rib cage and the arms of the robot are inserted inside. The surgeon monitors the surgical area on the robot’s display screen and performs the surgery by directing the robot’s arms.
Advantages of Endoscopic lung surgery
• Endoscopic (or closed) lung surgery has many advantages over open lung surgery. These advantages can be listed as follows;
• Since the surgical incision is small, fewer muscles are cut during surgery. Therefore, patients recover faster after surgery.
• Due to the small surgical incision, there are fewer postoperative complications.
• The risk of bleeding during and after surgery is much lower.
• The surgery is completed in a much shorter time.
• The postoperative intensive care unit stay and hospitalization period are much shorter. They are usually discharged within one or two days.
• Since the surgical area is smaller, especially young patients have fewer aesthetic concerns.
Endoscopic Lung Surgery through a Single Incision
With the single incision lung surgery method, which is the most modern and advanced method of lung surgery in the world, we can perform any type of surgery through an incision (or hole) of only 1-2 cm with the same treatment efficiency and success. The biggest advantage of this method is that the patient feels very little pain after surgery and can recover very quickly.
Its superiority over the open surgeries that existed before this method and are still performed by most centers is quite clear. It has been proven by studies published in many prestigious international journals and observations made on thousands of patients.
