Background & objective: With the developments in endoscopic surgery and the advances of radiological techniques, thoracoscopic pulmonary metastasectomy has been used more and more widely. This study was to evaluate the feasibility of thoracoscopic resection of pulmonary metastases.
Methods: The clinical data of 17 patients who underwent thoracoscopic pulmonary metastasectomy were retrospectively analyzed.
Results: All pulmonary metastases in the 17 patients were peripherally located and encountered during follow-up after treatment of primary disease. Metastases at other sites were excluded. Among the 17 cases of metastases, 10 were solitary metastasis, 4 were unilateral multiple metastases, 3 were bilateral metastases. All patients underwent thoracoscopic wedge resection. No major complications, operative mortality, and port site metastasis presented. Postoperative locoregional relapse occurred in 5 patients, in which 4 patients had multiple metastases, the rest 1 patient with soft tissue sarcoma underwent a second thoracoscopic resection of recurrent pulmonary lesion. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival rates were 77.3%, 53.1%, and 34.8%, respectively.
Conclusions: Thoracoscopic resection is feasible and effective for patients with a solitary pulmonary metastasis, especially when the lesion is smaller than 3 cm and peripherally located. Bilateral pulmonary metastases may also be resected by primary thoracoscopic operation.