ABSTRACT
UNLABELLED: The patients with periferal solitary pulmonary nodule often present a serious diagnostic and therapeuthic challenge.The aim of our study is to present our experience in VATS for diagnosis and treatment of patients with solitary periferal pulmonary tumors. MATERIAL AND METHODS: For the period of 1997-2009, 146 patients with periferal pulmonary tumors underwent VATS for resection of the tumor. RESULTS: 112 (74.2%) of the patients underwent radical VATS resection of the tumor after intraoperative frozen sections for diagnosis. In the rest 39 cases (25.8%) due to different reasons VATS was converted to open thoracotomy and wedge resection. 54.55% of the resected tumors were malignant and 45.45% of them were benign. In 18 patients the intraoperative frozen sections confirmed primary lung cancer, and the procedure was converted to thoracotomy and radical resection. In 13 patients the results from the intraoperative frozen sections were not definite and we were not able to differ wether the tumor was a pulmonary metastase or a primary lung cancer, and after the final histological examination the patients were submitted to radical resection in interval. In 33 of the cases we resected pulmonary metastases from an extrapulmonary primary tumor. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the advances in diagnostic technics, only the VATS resection of the pulmonary tumor and the histological examination assures definitive diagnosis, it allows the definitive treatment for the benign lesions and indicates the correct treatment for malignant lesions.
