Safety and experience with awake video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery [VATS] in compromized patients

ABSTRACT

Background: Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery [VATS] was implemented as a minimally-invasive technique to reduce tissue trauma. Thoracic epidural anesthesia furtherly-reduces intra-operative metabolic stress, postoperative pain, in addition to supporting awake VATS, by which then completely avoiding the drawbacks of mechanical ventilation and general anesthesia in high-risk patients. In this study we report the safety and experience with using VATS in patients where general anesthesia was deemed unsafe or not suitable. The VATS procedure was done in awake patients utilizing thoracic epidural analgesia and I.V sedation