Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery Useful for Mesothelioma Patients
A relatively new minimally-invasive surgical procedure known as Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery (VATS) that uses fiber-optic imaging to see a detailed view of the pleural cavity and its surrounding tissues offers another surgical option for pleural mesothelioma patients. Using video tools inserted through a small incision in the chest, the surgeon can conduct diagnostic tests or surgery without making incisions large enough to physically see and touch the inside of the patient’s body.
Pleural mesothelioma can be diagnosed with a VATS biopsy. VATS pleurodesis can also be performed on mesothelioma patients. Pleural mesothelioma is a form of lung cancer that is almost always caused by asbestos exposure and is most commonly found in the outer lining of the lungs called the mesothelium.
VATS is useful for many different diagnostic and treatment procedures, and each patient is evaluated to determine whether VATS is an appropriate procedure. According to surgeons at the Mayo Clinic, the best candidates are patients who have not previously had chest surgery as scar tissue from previous procedures can make access into the chest cavity difficult.
VATS offers many advantages over traditional thoracotomy, which uses one larger incision to gain access to the chest.
- Patients may be able to leave the hospital in only one to two days versus close to five days required otherwise
- Patients experience less trauma to the body
- Less pain medication is required
- VATS leaves a smaller surgical scar.
A study reported in Interactive Cariovascular and Thoracic Surgery concludes that VATS decortication (the removal of the visceral pleura encasing the lung) is useful as a palliative measure in advanced malignant mesothelioma, and that drainage of effusion and pleurectomy/decortication improves the quality of life and may increase survival as well.
